Investment could ‘institutionalise’ blue hydrogen

Alan Whitehead has called for any public financial support for hydrogen to be prioritised on the lowest-carbon version of the gas, while backing Drax’s plans to develop bio-mass power stations fitted with carbon capture storage (CCS) technology.

Speaking at a fringe meeting this morning (27 September) at the Labour Party conference, sponsored by Drax, the shadow energy minister warned against the risks of going down a “predominantly” blue hydrogen route.

In its hydrogen strategy, the government signalled it wants to pursue a “twin track” approach by encouraging both blue and green hydrogen.

So-called blue hydrogen is extracted from natural gas with the resulting emissions captured using CCS technology. Green hydrogen by contrast is created from water using electrolysers with no emissions.

However, the investment by companies in blue hydrogen plants could “institutionalise” the more highly emitting process, Whitehead said: “You may have a lot of industrial production over an extended period of time, which is actually as carbon producing if not more than other methods.”

Rather than risk this process becoming the mainstay of hydrogen production or such plants being becoming stranded assets within the next 10 to 15 years, the focus of government support should be on developing the lower emission option, he said: “It makes a lot of sense to go big on green hydrogen from the beginning. There will be some blue hydrogen but if you are going to be putting in government support, it should be support for green hydrogen and not for blue hydrogen. The market will probably produce a fair amount of blue hydrogen under its own steam: the market can’t produce green hydrogen.

“It’s not a question that there is no role for blue hydrogen but it has to be a minority, shortish term process and not the main process for developing the hydrogen economy in the future.”

The shadow energy minister also backed moves to generate electricity from biomass, like Drax is proposing at its north Yorkshire power station, fitted with CCS technology.

Some environmentalists have opposed Drax’s scheme because they are concerned it will encourage the unsustainable use of land for growing biomass.

Whitehead said net-zero goals would require the proportion of the UK landmass covered by woodland to increase from the current level of 13 per cent to 20 per cent.

But that increased planting would require careful management, he said: “There will be a huge amount of forest trimmings and thinnings, which can properly be used in energy production on a very low-carbon basis.

“This essentially what the long-term aim of Drax is: using that potentially enormous increase in biomass resource to provide a reliable source of energy for the future and I am completely with them.”

But the Portsmouth MP said that he would also like to see smaller scale biomass CCS being developed around the country alongside Drax’s giant converted coal power plant.

Whitehead was speaking ahead of Rachel Reeves’ keynote conference speech in which the shadow chancellor of the exchequer committed that a Labour government would spend £28 billion per annum for the rest of this decade for green investment, such as energy efficiency retrofits and flood defences.