Planned hydrogen innovation projects could create over 17,000 high-tech, green jobs in Britain’s industrial heartlands, new research published by Energy Networks Association (ENA) reveals today.
£4.4bn of investment is proposed in developing hydrogen gas grids to help reduce carbon emissions from Britain’s six Industrial Clusters, where strategically important heavy industries such as chemicals, iron, steel, glass and ceramics are concentrated. Over 9,000 of the jobs expected to be created would be employed by the network companies, with another 8,000 roles created in supply chain partners.
ENA’s Innovation Impacts report shows that new hydrogen innovation projects proposed by Britain’s five gas network companies could create a total of up to 25,000 highly skilled green jobs across Great Britain over the next ten years across five strategically important areas, including those in Industrial Clusters, as they plan to invest a total of £6.8 billion in proposed hydrogen innovation projects.
Up to 13,300 of the jobs would be created by network companies directly with, a further 11,400 jobs created by supply chain partners, in projects spread across the country.
The investment plans have been submitted to the energy regulator, Ofgem, as part of the companies’ business plans. The regulator is responsible for approving investment plans proposed by GB gas and electricity network companies.
The report sets out how the companies want to invest:
- £4.4bn to help reduce emissions in Britain’s industrial heartlands, such as HyNet North West, which will produce, store and distribute hydrogen while capturing and storing carbon from heavy manufacturing industries. These projects are expected to deliver over 17,000 high-tech green jobs in Britain’s industrial heartlands in north-west England, the Humber and Teesside, Southampton, north-east Scotland and south-east Wales, as well as other locations.
- £2.2bn in projects to speed up research into how we can repurpose existing gas pipelines so they are hydrogen-ready, to ensure gas network companies can deliver the Government’s hydrogen plans for building hydrogen village and town trials. This investment is expected to create over 6,700 jobs in projects in Fife, Cumbria and southern England, as well as other locations.
- £150m in projects to ensure the wider energy system and economy is ready for hydrogen, such as the expansions of the HyDeploy project to trial blending of up to 20% hydrogen into the existing grid in north-east England and a continuation of the Future Billing Methodology project, which will ensure peoples’ energy bills remain accurate as we start to use more hydrogen. This is expected to create over 700 jobs in the north east and central England.
- £19.5m in transport and other projects, researching how hydrogen can reduce emissions from cars and good vehicles, as well as ensuring it is used in a way that it is integrated with other green technologies and gases, such as wind farms and biomethane. These projects are expected to create nearly 100 jobs.
Commenting, Chris Train, ENA’s Gas Goes Green champion says:
“For the first time, this report sets out the sheer size and scale of the economic and social opportunities that hydrogen innovation can deliver over the next ten years, creating new green, hydrogen super-skills in communities and companies across the country.
“With the recent publication of the Government’s Hydrogen Strategy and the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan before that, the time is right for Ofgem to consider how it can unlock this investment, helping ensure that hydrogen plays its full part in fuelling Britain’s Green Industrial Revolution.”
Chris Manson-Whitton, of HyNet North West, adds:
“The UK has the innovation, skill and world leading infrastructure to be a global leader in the delivery of the hydrogen economy. Our leading industrial partners, such as those in the HyNet North West cluster, are committed to decarbonising their operations and products. Hydrogen enables them to do that, safeguarding jobs and attracting inward investment. As this report shows, network innovation underpins this transformation, also decarbonising our communities and transport systems, and creating thousands of skilled green jobs.”
We’ve released our Gas Goes Green Innovation Impacts research, which looks at the jobs and investment impact of hydrogen innovation projects proposed by Britain’s gas network companies. But where and how?
The research sets out how many high-tech green jobs gas network companies and their supply chain partners could create over the next 10 years.
So where and how can gas network companies deliver that investment to create those jobs?
Industrial areas in all four parts of Great Britain are top of the project list because they have the hardest to abate carbon emissions. In total, our members are proposing £4.4bn of investment in projects in central Scotland, northern and southern England and south Wales.
Approximately a quarter of all UK carbon emissions come from industry.
Industries in these parts of the country are currently reliant on the carbon-based natural gas to produce important products like steel and ceramics. This gas allows them, as energy intensive industries, to access the large amounts of energy to produce and sell those products, often in highly competitive, international markets.
That natural gas needs to be replaced to help tackle the climate emergency – but unlike other areas of our economy or society, such as transport or home heating, alternatives such as electrification are either impractical, too expensive, or simply not possible for these industries to use.
For that reason, our biggest single group of proposed innovation projects by investment are aimed at using hydrogen to reduce the carbon emissions from Britain’s six Industrial Clusters, where this heavy industry is based. Britain’s gas network companies want to develop the world’s first net zero Industrial Cluster by 2040, having established at least one low carbon cluster by 2030.
These clusters are in Humberside, South Wales, Grangemouth, Teesside, Merseyside, and Southampton and are a major strategic, contributor to our economy, worth a huge £170bn and employing nearly 3 million people.
We forecast that some 17,000 high-tech, green engineering jobs could be created by both network companies and supply chain partners in these industrial heartlands in the next ten years. Of these, we’d expect around 9,200 jobs to be created directly by gas network companies and around 8,000 created by supply chain partners.
The projects will help network companies develop the network of hydrogen pipelines and other infrastructure that are needed to produce, store and deliver hydrogen to these industries, as well enabling new technology such as carbon capture storage and utilisation.
National Grid’s Project Union will be key this work because it proposes to build a national ‘hydrogen backbone’ of pipelines that links Industrial Clusters together. Crucially, it will also look at how it can help industry access future hydrogen supplies from Europe by connecting a British hydrogen grid to the Continent, helping them access energy they need to produce their products at the lowest possible cost.
And as part of our Gas Goes Green Pathway to Net Zero, we see the use of hydrogen expanding outwards from these clusters over time, with the use of it by homes and other businesses joining up over time, to create a zero-carbon gas grid.
So, when it comes to our Innovation Impacts and the investment that gas networks are proposing, all this work is another example of how tomorrow’s heat is today’s opportunity.
About Energy Networks Association
We’re the industry body for the energy networks. Our members own and operate the wires and pipes which carry electricity and gas into your community, supporting our economy. The wires and pipes are the arteries of our economy, delivering energy to over 30 million homes and businesses across the UK and Ireland. To do this safely and reliably, the businesses which run the networks employ 45,000 people and have spent and invested over £60 billion in the last eight years.
Read the most up to date Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Industry news at FuelCellsWorks
