UK kicks off hydrogen funding rounds

The UK government has invited bids for £240mn ($287mn) in grants for green hydrogen projects from the newly-opened Net Zero Hydrogen Fund, it said on July 22.

The government is also inviting developers to apply to participate in the Hydrogen Business Model – a contractual business model designed to help low-carbon hydrogen production projects access revenue support in the form of private and public finance. It will select projects under both initiatives in early 2023.

A second tranche of funding from the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund is expected to go to other technologies for producing low-carbon hydrogen, including steam reforming of methane coupled with carbon capture and storage.

The launch of the two initiatives comes just under a year after the UK launched its national hydrogen strategy. The government's ambition is now to have some 10 GW of hydrogen production capacity up and running by the end of the 2030, having doubled the target earlier this year.

The UK's business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has also appointed a new "hydrogen champion," Jane Toogood, who will be tasked with realising the government's goals.