The UK government has announced a £375 million package of funding to support innovative energy technologies that will power British homes and businesses for decades.
£240 million will go toward hydrogen production as a clean, low-cost energy technology, £2.5 million will go toward developing next-generation nuclear technology, and a further £5 million will go toward carbon capture research.
The funding announcement came after the government released its British energy security strategy, which outlines how the UK will accelerate the deployment of wind, new nuclear, solar, and hydrogen while supporting domestic oil and gas production in the short term – potentially resulting in 95 percent of electricity being low carbon by 2030.
The Net Zero Hydrogen Fund, worth £240 million, will invest in low-carbon hydrogen production projects starting in 2022. This will help the government meet its goal of installing up to 2 GW of low-carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2025, and up to 10 GW by 2030, by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen with electricity.
With £100 million for electrolytic projects to cover the difference between the cost of production and the sale price for hydrogen, the Hydrogen Business Model will encourage more investment in hydrogen production.
By demonstrating the feasibility of hydrogen to businesses and lowering the cost of switching energy systems, the Industrial Hydrogen Accelerator, a £26 million innovation funding program, will assist UK industry in adopting hydrogen as a clean, affordable fuel source for sectors such as manufacturing.
A £2.5 million competition is open to bidders who want to build a UK Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR). These reactors generate high-temperature heat for industrial applications as well as electricity to power people’s homes using novel and innovative fuels, coolants, and technologies.
Private investment, including ITM Power’s announcement of a new electrolyser plant in Sheffield, is complementing government support for hydrogen.
The government has also released a Hydrogen Investor Roadmap to highlight the numerous investment opportunities across the hydrogen value chain and encourage private investment in hydrogen to help boost the UK’s domestic hydrogen industry, which is based on clean, affordable energy.
