Blue hydrogen would require a massive increase in oil imports, which is why Shell and BP are lobbying for it, and CCUS plants. it is a net negative in electricity generation terms. Both are hugely expensive and inefficient because they need more energy to produce the hydrogen than it delivers, i.e. The much vaunted hydrogen can be produced by burning gas (termed “blue”) or splitting H2O molecules by electrolysis (termed “green”). The latest BEIS “ Updated Energy and Emissions Projections 2018” only gives projections to 2035 by source (coal, gas, imported, oil, renewables) but not in total. The document acknowledges “BEIS has committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions and ending our contribution to global warming by 2050” but, extraordinarily, gives no estimate of what the demand for green electricity will then be nor how that demand will be met. Has anyone in BEIS got a GCSE in chemistry? And I am pretty sure hydrogen does not contain any carbon. Of course, hydrogen was the first element in the universe and will probably be the last. My favourite BEIS hydrogen “research interests” are “What are the costs and barriers to producing and storing large volumes of low-carbon and zero-carbon hydrogen?” (p.33) and “What is the fate of hydrogen in the environment, and its effect on climate and the ozone layer?” (p.36).

but none have to do with generating the stuff. Nearly two years ago BEIS announced (28 November 2018) the UK would become “a global leader in CCUS” by following this “ Action Plan”: “Commissioning of the first CCUS facility from the mid-2020s would help the UK to meet our ambition of having the option to deploy CCUS at scale during the 2030s, subject to costs coming down sufficiently.”ĭespite the progress made in energy production in the last century, fossil fuels (handicapped by sometime CCUS), renewables and nuclear will not be enough: we need new sources.īEIS, in its published “ Areas of Research Interest 2019 to 2020” mentioned the word “electricity” only eight times in 49 pages. There are over 40 CCUS plants around the world but none in the UK. “ Around 98 percent of the injected CO2 remains permanently trapped in the sub-surface.” In a net zero scenario, the continuing use of fossil fuels for electricity generation is only really possible with carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS) which is mainly done by scrubbing the CO2 out of the coal and gas fired power station emissions and then storing it (usually by injecting it back into the layers of rock that had held oil or gas or into old salt mines). Nuclear running costs are competitive with fossil fuels but the capital costs and development time, both exacerbated by overruns (and tendered to an oligopoly), e.g. Yet the UK commissions nuclear power plants like Cheshire Cats: Anglesey Wylfa, Moorside and Oldbury have all been cancelled. As fossil fuels are phased out, and electricity becomes our only source of power, its sufficiency should be the top priority for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The National Grid looks likely to come under increasing strain due to the conflicting government policies on nuclear, renewables, zero carbon and funding.

Power to the people strength