Draft Hydrogen Action Plan

The draft HAP appears to recognise the role of hydrogen in all parts of the energy system including heat, power, transport and industry, as well as in the transport and storage of energy and export of energy.

The themes are good, however it could be clearer where the role of regulation and standards resides. Is it in a single theme, or a number of themes? It also needs to be more explicit, as these are crucial aspects.

Also, given that every single fiscal and financial transaction will be based upon a flow measurement, it needs to be clear in which theme consideration will occur of how hydrogen will be measured and traded, including provision of a measurement traceability chain, as per the UK's National Measurement System.

There needs to be more focus in the support mechanisms for hydrogen supply chain companies in Scotland. The support at present is very focused towards those leading the building of hydrogen projects and R&D, which does indirectly filter down to supply chain companies, but in a strongly attenuated way. There is relatively little support directly for supply chain companies to adapt their offering to support the hydrogen economy, and without this, there is a significant risk that a lot of the supply of goods and services will come from overseas, especially the EU.

It is not my focus to answer this question.

As per Q3 above ** there needs to be criteria introduced to ensure that support of supply chain organisations occurs.


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There needs to be more focus in the support mechanisms for hydrogen supply chain companies in Scotland. The support at present is very focused towards those leading the building of hydrogen projects and R&D, which does indirectly filter down to supply chain companies, but in a strongly attenuated way. There is relatively little support directly for supply chain companies to adapt their offering to support the hydrogen economy, and without this, there is a significant risk that a lot of the supply of goods and services will come from overseas, especially the EU.

Whilst it is clearly a chicken and egg scenario, and as mentioned there needs to care taken to ensure supply and demand grow at similar rates, there should be more priority given to growing demand related to the use of hydrogen in transport. Transport represents a large portion of Scotland's emissions, and electric vehicles are only suitable for some transport needs (e.g. light vehicles, on short journeys, and used infrequently); with hydrogen vehicles representing a much better choice for a large number of transport needs, especially once consumer behaviour is considered realistically for the whole population, rather than the early adopter, climate conscious few.
Also, as greater numbers of electric vehicles start to exist, grid constraints for charging are going to begin to manifest.
If the adoption of hydrogen vehicles is not going to fall disastrously behind, their adoption needs to be accelerated very soon, and very quickly.

The future of transport is a mixture of the two options BEV and HV, one must not be allowed to fail, as this will inhibit the ability to achieve net-zero.

It is not my focus to answer this question.

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Having read the summary of the report only, the findings appear to be balanced, comprehensive (the scope under consideration was admirably broad) and inline with what I expected.

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The only thing that seemed curious was the consideration of water usage and slight implication this could be negative, given that Scotland has an abundance of water, and using water for hydrogen is a water cycle anyway. However, the hydrogen is used, it ultimately ends up back as water again, whether used in combustion or through a fuel cell. So the overall amount of water is not being reduced.

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Reasonable

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There are impacts related to how hydrogen will be traded/sold (whether domestically or internationally), both in terms of the financial basis and how this will be regulated (measurement accuracy, traceability and calibration requirements for flow measurement devices), and in terms of how the carbon intensity of the hydrogen with be certified.
At present neither has been given explicit recognition within the draft HAP, something that should be rectified.

Whilst Scotland may use the UK's low carbon hydrogen standard (currently under development), this needs to be commented on, along with how other schemes such as CertifHy and CMS 70 (both offered by my organisation TUV SUD) may be used. For the export of hydrogen, harmonisation of certification and use of schemes that satisfy both exporter and importer requirements is crucial.

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