UK hydrogen strategy to be launched in Q1: ITM's Cooley

A UK hydrogen strategy is to be launched in the first quarter of 2021, ITM CEO Graham Cooley told S&P Global Platts Oct. 23.

Cooley is a member of the UK's Hydrogen Advisory Council, co-chaired by Minister of State Kwasi Kwarteng and Sinead Lynch of Shell. The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy was not immediately able to confirm the schedule.

"The UK government is working on a strategy, to be launched in the first quarter of 2021. There is a concerted effort going on and it has a significant vision for using hydrogen in the UK," Cooley said.

Cooley would not be drawn on the content of a UK strategy, but said there was a "re-balancing of the UK government's approach to hydrogen with an increasing emphasis on green [renewable] hydrogen".

That is already the case in strategies announced by France, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, Cooley said.

The emphasis was also mirrored in the depth of knowledge being built around the green hydrogen sector in London's capital markets, demonstrated by strong support of ITM's recent funding round.

With increasing numbers of funds focused on ESG attributes, "the City wants to see hydrogen directed towards net zero, with the focus on electrolysis, energy storage and, most importantly, a diversity of product for renewable energy producers," Cooley said.

Modest funding of industrial decarbonization projects in the UK have to date focused on carbon capture and storage clusters in the industrial heartlands of Grangemouth, Humberside, Merseyside, Teesside and South Wales.

Just one major green hydrogen initiative, the Gigastack project, has received study funding. The project is led by ITM Power, Orsted, Phillips 66 Limited and Element Energy.