The UK hydrogen strategy is finally out. My take on it in this thread. gov.uk/government/new…
1) The hydrogen strategy rightly identifies hydrogen as a key ingredient for the energy transition especially in areas such as power, industry and parts of the transport sector.
2) As my quote on @BBCNews says “But, as the strategy admits, there won’t be significant quantities of low carbon hydrogen for some time. We need to use it where there are few alternatives and not as a like-for-like replacement of gas.” bbc.com/news/science-e…
3) Confusingly the @beisgovuk press release mentions 3 million homes to be powered by hydrogen every year by 2030, a number picked up by @JH_Ambrose @guardian in this piece. But this is not what the strategy says - it’s less than 70,000 homes by 2030. theguardian.com/environment/20…
4) On page 62 the hydrogen strategy states that the government expects <1 TWh of energy for heating to come from hydrogen by 2030. Current energy demand in the UK for space and hot water heating is 435 TWh according to Ofgem. So 1 TWh is 0.2%. That’s about 67,000 homes.
5) By 2035 up to 45 TWh of hydrogen for heating are expected in the strategy. That’s about 10% of total UK domestic heat demand using Ofgem figures.
6) The strategy shows that hydrogen for heating homes will not play a significant role before 2030. This means that for reducing emissions this decade, hydrogen will play only a very marginal role which is what we said previously in our @UKERCHQ report. ukerc.ac.uk/publications/n…
6) But we cannot wait until 2030 before bringing down emissions from heating. The urgency of the climate crisis requires bold policy action now. This means we need to continue with the roll-out of proven technologies now rather than wait another 10-15 years.
7) I agree that hydrogen is likely to play an important enabling role in a fully decarbonised power sector, through system flexibility that electrolytic production and hydrogen storage can provide and the potential for flexible power generation supporting RES.
8) Hydrogen cars don't feature in the strategy and rightly so. Others such as @TheICCT @AukeHoekstra and @MLiebreich have pointed out time and time again that electric cars are far superior. rechargenews.com/energy-transit…
9) Clearly hydrogen could play an important role in shipping and aviation. But the strategy mentions trucks and buses too. With technology evolving fast even for trucks it is not clear that hydrogen will be needed as battery technology improves rapidly. cleanenergywire.org/news/battery-e…
Just to be clear - I don't blame journalists for using the figure as it was prominently in the press release.
10) Obvious applications of low carbon hydrogen include those sectors where we currently use grey hydrogen based on unabated fossil fuels. In any strategy this should come top of the list as the @MLiebreich hydrogen ladder highlights.
https://twitter.com/MLiebreich/status/1426900737313984514?s=20
The @beisgovuk tweet also mentions that the strategy will deliver 3m homes to be powered by hydrogen. This is not what's in the document.
https://twitter.com/beisgovuk/status/1427525791542390804?s=20
11) A key question is around how to incentivise the scaling up of hydrogen and government will consult on this. @emmagatten & @RachelMillardAS @Telegraph have the details. telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/…
@emmagatten has also checked with @beisgovuk and they confirmed it’s not 3m.
https://twitter.com/emmagatten/status/1427573214201405457
12) As the documents are now all online I can share this screenshot showing expected hydrogen demand for different sectors. Note the 0-45 TWh range for heating indicating large uncertainties. Also note the very low amounts in 2030 for heating. 
13) Documents are now all online here gov.uk/government/pub…
14) If you made it all the way to this point you may also be interested in this earlier thread on where to use hydrogen and where not.
https://twitter.com/janrosenow/status/1390559550701547520
"No hydrogen use is modelled in cars or vans as current evidence suggests battery electrification is likely to be the preferred vehicle technology and the lowest cost route to zero emissions for cars and vans" the official technical analytical annex says. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
15) The total amount of hydrogen assumed to be used by 2050 is high - 20-35% of the UK’s energy consumption. This is significantly more than the @theCCCuk believes will be needed in its balanced pathway scenario.
16) The strategy adopts a twin track for blue and green hydrogen. Green should be the priority as blue is never 100% zero carbon. How much carbon benefit blue hydrogen could deliver is contested @david_joffe @mzjacobson @MLiebreich @gnievchenko.
https://twitter.com/david_joffe/status/1426108192891850753?s=20
Just to be clear: the mistake was clearly with the press release which was shared with journalists who may not have seen the actual strategy to be able to fact check. The government press release was subsequently amended but the damage was done.
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