IGEM's response to Net Zero Review
Mission Zero – the published outcome of The Net Zero Review by Rt Hon Chris Skidmore MP – has made it clear that hydrogen will play a vital role in our future energy mix and that although the UK has a huge opportunity to be a global leader, it risks losing out and needs to act quickly to implement business models and regulatory frameworks.
IGEM supports the key recommendations to:
- Develop and implement an ambitious and pragmatic 10-year delivery roadmap for scaling up production of hydrogen
- Deliver transport and storage business models as soon as possible
- Continue the delivery of hydrogen heating trials to inform the role hydrogen can play in homes
- Update whole system costs analysis in order to ensure the case for economic optimality and feasibility for hydrogen home heating still holds
It seems to be coming more obvious that the role of the gas system, and therefore the future hydrogen system, operates across an integrated energy system and range of demand sectors with co-benefits to be realised in a system-wide deployment of hydrogen:
- Industrial decarbonisation where we can deliver fuel switching in processes like steel production,
- Transport, where this can be helped to accelerate by adjustments to the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation
- Homes for heating to replace fossil fuel, which is being tested through the BEIS trails programme
- Flexible electricity generation as a back up to a system dominated by intermittent sources ana baseload of nuclear capacity
- Storage of molecular energy to manage the balancing of supply and demand over the year, which the Future System Operator will need include within their role
IGEM were pleased to respond to the review alongside other Professional Engineering Institutions through the National Engineering Policy Centre, and we look forward to supporting our members and the wider sector in delivering on any recommendations that are carried forward and the continued programme of innovation and next steps in the Hydrogen Strategy.