On Tuesday I gave evidence to the The Scottish Parliament Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on the development of hydrogen in Scotland.
The proximate reason for the session was the publication of work, commissioned by Scottish Government and UK Government, on low carbon options for Grangemouth.
However, the main thrust of the questions was the development of hydrogen more generally in Scotland. It was a good opportunity to highlight the important roles that hydrogen is likely to play in a net zero system which include:
- Decarbonising high-temperature industry.
- Acting as a low carbon store of energy. Hydrogen and its derivatives are one of the few options to replace the tens of terawatt hours of fossil fuel we currently have.
- Through this storage role hydrogen is likely to be critical for energy resilience in a zero-carbon system, something that the NICs second national infrastructure assessment picked up on in 2023.
- Through its derivates, hydrogen will be important in providing low, zero or even negative carbon options for aviation and shipping.
Recent energy system modelling, such as the work supporting the Committee on Climate Change’s Carbon Budget 7 (CB7), shows a significant reduction in the volume of hydrogen that might be used in the economy compared with similar analysis a few years ago such as the equivalent modelling for CB6, published five years ago. This reduction reflects growing expectations that hydrogen won’t have a significant role in heating building, and that it will only have a niche role in surface transport.
These adjustments seem reasonable. However, whilst I agree that based on current evidence that total volume in a future system might be lower than previous estimates, that doesn’t diminish it’s important. Value isn’t only driven by volume. As we understand better what electrification can’t achieve, and what serving those parts of the energy system effectively delivers for the economy and society – outcomes like resilience and security of supply – the urgency of developing an effective national hydrogen system increases.
