Policy & Socio-Economics

This spreadsheet contains data for two future UK scenarios: a "baseline" (i.e. no climate action after 2008 the start of the carbon budget system) and the "central" scenario underpinning the CCC's advice on the fifth carbon budget (the limit to domestic emissions during the period 2028-32).<br/>The central scenario is an assessment of the technologies and behaviours that would prepare for the 2050 target cost-effectively while meeting the other criteria in the Climate Change Act (2008) based on central views of technology costs fuel prices carbon prices and feasibility. It is not prescriptive nor is it the only scenario considered for meeting the carbon budgets. For further details on our scenarios and how they were generated see the CCC report Sectoral scenarios for the Fifth Carbon Budget. The scenario was constructed for the CCC's November 2015 report and has not been further updated for example to reflect outturn data for 2015 or changes to Government policy.

The cost of delivered H₂ using the liquid-distribution pathway will approach $4.3–8.0/kg in the USA and 26–52 RMB/kg in China by around 2030 assuming large-scale adoption. Historically hydrogen as an industrial gas and a chemical feedstock has enjoyed a long and successful history. However it has been slow to take off as an energy carrier for transportation despite its benefits in energy diversity security and environmental stewardship. A key reason for this lack of progress is that the cost is currently too high to displace petroleum-based fuels. This paper reviews the prospects for hydrogen as an energy carrier for transportation clarifies the current drivers for cost in the USA and China and shows the potential for a liquid-hydrogen supply chain to reduce the costs of delivered H₂. Technical and economic trade-offs between individual steps in the supply chain (viz. production transportation refuelling) are examined and used to show that liquid-H₂ (LH₂) distribution approaches offer a path to reducing the delivery cost of H₂ to the point at which it could be competitive with gasoline and diesel fuel.

This report sets out scenarios for the UK power sector in 2030 as an input to the Committee’s advice on the fifth carbon budget.<br/>These scenarios are not intended to set out a prescriptive path. Instead they provide a tool for the Committee to verify that its advice can be achieved with manageable impacts in order to meet the criteria set out in the Climate Change Act including competitiveness affordability and energy security.

Because of the increasing challenges raised by climate change power generation from renewable energy sources is steadily increasing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions especially CO2 . However this has escalated concerns about the instability of the power grid and surplus power generated because of the intermittent power output of renewable energy. To resolve these issues this study investigates two technical options that integrate a power-to-gas (PtG) process using surplus wind power and the gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC). In the first option hydrogen produced using a power-to-hydrogen (PtH) process is directly used as fuel for the GTCC. In the second hydrogen from the PtH process is converted into synthetic natural gas by capturing carbon dioxide from the GTCC exhaust which is used as fuel for the GTCC. An annual operational analysis of a 420-MWclass GTCC was conducted which shows that the CO2 emissions of the GTCC-PtH and GTCC-PtM plants could be reduced by 95.5% and 89.7% respectively in comparison to a conventional GTCC plant. An economic analysis was performed to evaluate the economic feasibility of the two plants using the projected cost data for the year 2030 which showed that the GTCC-PtH would be a more viable option.

A core theme of the UK Government's new Industrial Strategy is exploiting opportunities for domestic supply chain development. This extends to a special ‘Automotive Sector Deal’ that focuses on the shift to low emissions vehicles (LEVs). Here attention is on electric vehicle and battery production and innovation. In this paper we argue that a more straightforward gain in terms of framing policy around potential economic benefits may be made through supply chain activity to support refuelling of battery/hydrogen vehicles. We set this in the context of LEV refuelling supply chains potentially replicating the strength of domestic upstream linkages observed in the UK electricity and/or gas industries. We use input-output multiplier analysis to deconstruct and assess the structure of these supply chains relative to that of more import-intensive petrol and diesel supply. A crucial multiplier result is that for every £1million of spending on electricity (or gas) 8 full-time equivalent jobs are supported throughout the UK. This compares to less than 3 in the case of petrol/diesel supply. Moreover the importance of service industries becomes apparent with 67% of indirect and induced supply chain employment to support electricity generation being located in services industries. The comparable figure for GDP is 42%.

The Department of Energy (DOE) Hydrogen Program Plan (the Program Plan or Plan) outlines the strategic high-level focus areas of DOE’s Hydrogen Program (the Program). The term Hydrogen Program refers not to any single office within DOE but rather to the cohesive and coordinated effort of multiple offices that conduct research development and demonstration (RD&D) activities on hydrogen technologies. This terminology and the coordinated efforts on hydrogen among relevant DOE offices have been in place since 2004 and provide an inclusive and strategic view of how the Department coordinates activities on hydrogen across applications and sectors. This version of the Plan updates and expands upon previous versions including the Hydrogen Posture Plan and the DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program Plan and provides a coordinated high-level summary of hydrogen related activities across DOE.



The 2006 Hydrogen Posture Plan fulfilled the requirement in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT 2005) that the Energy Secretary transmit to Congress a coordinated plan for DOE’s hydrogen and fuel cell activities. For historical context the original Posture Plan issued in 2004 outlined a coordinated plan for DOE and the U.S. Department of Transportation to meet the goals of the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative (HFI) and implement the 2002 National Hydrogen Energy Technology Roadmap. The HFI was launched in 2004 to accelerate research development and demonstration (RD&D) of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies for use in transportation electricity generation and portable power applications. The Roadmap provided a blueprint for the public and private efforts required to fulfill a long-term national vision for hydrogen energy as outlined in A National Vision of America’s Transition to a Hydrogen Economy—to 2030 and Beyond. Both the Roadmap and the Vision were developed out of meetings involving DOE industry academia non-profit organizations and other stakeholders. The Roadmap the Vision the Posture Plans the 2011 Program Plan and the results of key stakeholder workshops continue to form the underlying basis for this current edition of the Program Plan.



This edition of the Program Plan reflects the Department’s focus on conducting coordinated RD&D activities to enable the adoption of hydrogen technologies across multiple applications and sectors. It includes content from the various plans and documents developed by individual offices within DOE working on hydrogen-related activities including: the Office of Fossil Energy's Hydrogen Strategy: Enabling a Low Carbon Economy the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office Multi-year RD&D Plan the Office of Nuclear Energy’s Integrated Energy Systems 2020 Roadmap and the Office of Science’s Basic Research Needs for the Hydrogen Economy. Many of these documents are also in the process of updates and revisions and will be posted online.



Through this overarching document the reader will gain information on the key RD&D needs to enable the largescale use of hydrogen and related technologies—such as fuel cells and turbines—in the economy and how the Department’s various offices are addressing those needs. The Program will continue to periodically revise the Plan along with all program office RD&D plans to reflect technological progress programmatic changes policy decisions and updates based on stakeholder input and reviews.

Adoption of hydrogen energy as an alternative to fossil fuels could be a major step towards decarbonising and fulfilling the needs of the energy sector. Hydrogen can be an ideal alternative for many fields compared with other alternatives. However there are many potential environmental challenges that are not limited to production and distribution systems but they also focus on how hydrogen is used through fuel cells and combustion pathways. The use of hydrogen has received little attention in research and policy which may explain the widely claimed belief that nothing but water is released as a by-product when hydrogen energy is used. We adopt systems thinking and system dynamics approaches to construct a conceptual model for hydrogen energy with a special focus on the pathways of hydrogen use to assess the potential unintended consequences and possible interventions; to highlight the possible growth of hydrogen energy by 2050. The results indicate that the combustion pathway may increase the risk of the adoption of hydrogen as a combustion fuel as it produces NOx which is a key air pollutant that causes environmental deterioration which may limit the application of a combustion pathway if no intervention is made. The results indicate that the potential range of global hydrogen demand is rising ranging from 73 to 158 Mt in 2030 73 to 300 Mt in 2040 and 73 to 568 Mt in 2050 depending on the scenario presented.

Australia’s National Hydrogen Strategy sets a vision for a clean innovative safe and competitive hydrogen industry that benefits all Australians. It aims to position our industry as a major player by 2030.<br/>The strategy outlines an adaptive approach that equips Australia to scale up quickly as the hydrogen market grows. It includes a set of nationally coordinated actions involving governments industry and the community.

Some 3% of global energy consumption today is used to produce hydrogen. Only 0.002% of this hydrogen about 1000 tonnes per annum(i) is used as an energy carrier. Yet as this timely position paper from DNV GL indicates hydrogen can become a major clean energy carrier in a world struggling to limit global warming.<br/>The company’s recently published 2018 Energy Transition Outlook(1) projects moderate uptake of hydrogen in this role towards 2050 then significant growth towards 2100. Building on that this position paper provides a more granular analysis of hydrogen as an energy carrier.

In this podcast David Ledesma talks to Martin Lambert Head of OIES Hydrogen Research about the key messages from the recent European Hydrogen Conference and how they fit with the ongoing research in OIES.   In particular they cover the heightened energy security concerns following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and hydrogen ambitions in the REPowerEU document published by the European Commission in early March 2002.   They then go on to talk about the growing realism about where hydrogen is more likely to play a role and some of the key challenges to be overcome. Addressing the challenges of creating business cases for use of hydrogen in specific sectors and for transporting it to customers the conversation also addresses the importance of hydrogen storage and the recognition that this area needs more focus both technically and commercially.   Finally they talk about the geopolitics of hydrogen and how energy security concerns may influence future development pathways.

The podcast can be found on their website