The Prime Minister yesterday launched his ’10-point plan’ for a green recovery, with £12bn the topline investment figure (although there is debate over how much of this is new money), and claims it will create 250,000 green jobs.
Hydrogen was point 2 on the list, with a topline investment figure of up to £500m. This investment will be targeted at trialling homes using hydrogen for heating and cooking, starting with a Hydrogen Neighbourhood in 2023, moving to a Hydrogen Village by 2025, with an aim for a Hydrogen Town – equivalent to tens of thousands of homes – before the end of the decade. Of this funding, £240 million will go into new hydrogen production facilities.
Also of relevance is point 5 in the plan, which states: “we will have cleaner public transport, including thousands of green buses and hundreds of miles of new cycle lanes.” However, the detail of this appears to suggest it relates to the £5bn already pledged by the PM in February, of which £3bn is for the purchase of at least 4,000 ZEBs. There is currently no further detail on when or how this money will be spent.
The PM wrote an op-ed for the Financial Times to announce the launch of the 10-point plan, in which he says:
“Imagine Britain when a Green Industrial Revolution has helped to level up the country. You cook breakfast using hydrogen power before getting in your electric car, having charged it overnight from batteries made in the Midlands. Around you the air is cleaner; trucks, trains, ships and planes run on hydrogen or synthetic fuel. British towns and regions — Teesside, Port Talbot, Merseyside and Mansfield — are now synonymous with green technology and jobs. This is where Britain’s ability to make hydrogen and capture carbon pioneered the decarbonisation of transport, industry and power.”
For more about the Benefits of Hydrogen click here…
