Humber stakes claim for UK’s first hydrogen cluster at partnership launch

PROPOSED SITE: Easington, where North Sea gas was first landed nearly 60 years ago

By Angus Young

Supporters of plans for the UK’s first hydrogen cluster around the Humber say it could be an economic gamechanger for the region.

The proposed Humber Hydrogen network, initially connecting five sites on either side of the estuary, is being backed by four major energy companies together with partner organisations and local MPs.

They have joined forces to lobby ministers ahead of the publication of the first-ever national hydrogen strategy and the start of a bidding process to build-out the sector’s first industrial cluster.

The Humber is expected to face competition from a rival initiative in the North-West to secure a promised £500m investment by the government.

Speaking at the Humber Hydrogen partnership’s official launch in Hull, John Wilson, head of Hydrogen Clusters at National Gas, said the project would safeguard up to 4,000 local jobs in key industries such as chemicals and steel, create around 700 apprenticeships and unlock up to £15bn worth of investment across the UK’s emerging hydrogen sector.

“All of this is within our reach,” he said. “The project partners are ready, local industry is ready. We just need the government to provide certainty for us to begin to deliver.

“Next year it will be 60 years since North Sea gas was first landed at Easington. With Humber Hydrogen, we have the opportunity to create a new type of energy without being limited by the finite nature of fossil fuels.”

LAUNCH: Supporters of the Humber Hydrogen partnership, which could unlock £500m of investment

Under the plans, a production, conversion and storage network would include sites at Easington, Aldbrough and Saltend on the North Bank and Immingham and Keadby on the South Bank, linked together by underground pipework with designed capacity for future expansion.

It’s envisaged hydrogen would be used as an alternative fuel to gas, helping to decarbonise power generation and industries such as manufacturing, steel and chemicals where electrification is traditionally difficult.

At Aldbrough, there are plans to create new storage space in a series of underground salt caverns, helping to create one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world.

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart said there was cross-party support from all the region’s MPs for the project.

“Humber Hydrogen provides a real opportunity to build on the great number of renewable energy schemes we have seen being developed here over the last few years and I don’t know of a better area in the world with the assets we have here in the Humber to make this happen.

“It has the support of both Conservative and Labour MPs in this area because they can see it makes absolute sense to secure and create thousands of excellent, hi-tech well-paid jobs.

“I know the government is not opposed to this, it just needs to move more quickly.”