Claire Coutinho is preparing to publish a road map outlining how the UK will produce and use gas in industrial quantities. Photo: OLI SCARFF/AFP < p>Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho is to approve plans to build hydrogen plants around the UK coastline as part of efforts to achieve net zero.
Ms Coutinho is to publish a 'Hydrogen Roadmap' in within a few days, which will set out how the UK will produce and use gas in industrial quantities.
Hydrogen offers a clean alternative to natural gas and has the potential to replace diesel as the primary zero-emission fuel for trucks, trains and ships. It could also replace gas in heavy industry.
The roadmap is expected to include plans to create large-scale hydrogen production facilities, creating a whole new UK energy industry and creating thousands of new jobs.
Teesside, Humberside and Merseyside are the most likely initial sites for mass hydrogen production. because they already have much of the necessary infrastructure, Whitehall insiders say.
In the long term, others could follow suit in places such as Bacton in Norfolk, Milford Haven in south Wales and St Fergus in northeast of Scotland.
These sites will be linked to each other and to the gas network by a “hydrogen network” — a network of pipes designed to move hydrogen around the UK, as natural gas already does.
The scheme will cost billions of pounds, much of which will initially come from government subsidies and grants aimed at getting the industry off the ground. The costs will ultimately be borne by taxpayers and consumers.
Hydrogen could also be added to the UK's domestic gas networks at concentrations of up to 20%, creating a growing market for the gas and helping the industry gain expertise in managing it.
Ms Coutinho is also expected to offer controversial views . long-term plans to replace natural gas with clean hydrogen for heating homes. This will mean replacing or upgrading boilers, stoves and gas fires in all affected homes.
However, this will not happen until the idea is trialled first at a village scale and then in entire cities for evaluation public opinion. acceptance and safety.
Plans to trial hydrogen heating for homes in Whitby, Cheshire, were scrapped earlier this year after resistance from local residents.
Civil servants from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero are drawing up plans for a village-scale trial planned in Scotland. east coast settlement of Buckhaven and Dunbeath. A second, larger one is planned for Redcar, near Teesside.
If it succeeds, the entire city could be converted to hydrogen, with Aberdeen, Scunthorpe and villages around the Foley oil refinery near Southampton currently candidates.
Plans for large-scale deployment of hydrogen are being drawn up. help the country move away from oil and gas, which provides 77% of the country's total energy needs but produces CO2 emissions and leaves the country dependent on other countries for energy.
The transition to hydrogen will be expensive. Hydrogen is produced either from natural gas (CO2 waste is buried in rocks deep under the seafloor) or by using electricity to split water molecules. Both methods require a lot of energy, which makes them expensive.
The government's own hydrogen strategy warns: «While costs are likely to fall significantly and rapidly as innovation and adoption accelerate, hydrogen is currently much more expensive.» produce and use than existing fossil fuels.»
Hydrogen's value lies in its high energy density, so it can power anything from homes to heavy vehicles.
It also “clean”, that is, when burned it does not emit CO2. Methane-fired gas boilers account for 22% of UK greenhouse gas emissions.
There is widespread support for using hydrogen to fuel heavy vehicles such as trucks and trains, or in heavy industry. However, its use in homes is controversial after the recent National Infrastructure Assessment found hydrogen is ineffective for domestic use.
A spokesman for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said the UK wants to become a world leader in the production and use of low carbon hydrogen. This will include trialling the gas for domestic heating, but only in communities that have supported the idea.
A spokesman said: “We are aiming to have 10 gigawatts of low-carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030, in including at least half from green hydrogen sources, supporting more than 12,000 jobs and up to £11 billion of private investment across the UK.
“The Hydrogen Roadmap will show how we expect the hydrogen industry will develop until 2035.”
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