“A hydrogen economy is absolutely going to be part of delivering decarbonisation,” said chief scientific advisor for the department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Professor Paul Monks.
Delivering a speech on how innovation can deliver net zero solutions on the second day of Innovation Zero Monk dubbed hydrogen “the champagne of the energy transition.”
Delivering a hydrogen economy is going to be costly, conceded Monk before outlining the benefits hydrogen can offer the UK.
“[Hydrogen is] going to be very important to industrial decarbonisation. In the 2040s. It’s going to be an incredible important part of the aircraft industry; for example Airbus and Rolls Royce are both developing large hydrogen engines.
“From the creation of hydrogen to its transport and storage requires a system level approach and we’re working very hard on that whole system level approach.”
Listing governmental support for hydrogen, Monks mentioned its support for the Northwest industrial cluster, which he said would hold 1.2TWh of hydrogen storage by then end of this decade, as well as government backing for new innovative hydrogen projects such as the next generation of electrolyser stacks.
Hydrogen forms a part of a number of decarbonisation methods that received government backing in its Powering Up Britain paper published 30 March alongside: solar; offshore wind; electric vehicles; heat pumps; and carbon capture usage.
One audience member asked Monks whether the UK was trying to be a international leader in too many of these low-carbon spaces and whether the nation would achieve more mileage with a narrower focus.
“I would argue that one of the important roles government funded innovation can play compared to commercialisation is that it can hold a wider portfolio of risks,” answered Monks.
“So I think what it does better and probably what governments should do is hold that wider portfolio, they’re really working with that private sector investment and that translation piece that allows them that portfolio to narrow to where the UK can can make economic opportunity from that.
“Early on, it’s important to have a high risk and large portfolios are the best place to be able to do that. That then leads to a narrowing as we go to that public, private sector – tensioning drives the narrowing of those sorts of portfolios.”