North East to benefit from new funding for hydrogen transport

Airports and supermarket deliveries could become greener and more efficient thanks to a £8 million government competition to support hydrogen-powered transport in the North East, grow the economy and create jobs.

The Transport Secretary has announced 2 winning projects, encouraging more businesses and innovators to develop new technology that uses hydrogen fuel to accelerate transport decarbonisation.

One project led by ULEMCo, receiving a share of the £8 million funding, will develop hydrogen-powered airport ground-based support vehicles, such as tow trucks for aeroplanes and sweepers to clean runways. This will be based at Teesside international airport, which will help the airport reach its goal of being net zero by 2030.

Another of the winning projects led by Element 2 aims to create new hydrogen refuelling stations, helping to provide the infrastructure needed to scale up the use of hydrogen as a fuel. This funding will create 4 new publicly accessible hydrogen refuelling stations, increasing the number of refuelling stations in the UK by 50%. These will be used to fuel a range of vehicles, from airside vehicles to heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), including supermarket delivery trucks.

Read more: North East to benefit from new funding for hydrogen transport - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)