Why just go heavy on hydrogen?

James Cox, Public Affairs Manager at Bristol Airport explores why the UK needs to consider the benefits of hydrogen in areas without heavy industry if it’s to seize the economic advantages of the net zero transformation. Bristol Airport is a founder member of Hydrogen South West.

The UK Government has so far focussed on creating hydrogen ecosystems in the North West and the Humber. These major clusters of heavy industry have much to be gained from the use of the fuel, combining it with projects to capture carbon to create a new low-carbon economy.  While important, the opportunity for hydrogen goes far beyond heavy industry. There are other areas with lighter industry, but heavy opportunities.

Economic success

The South West has a different economy to the areas covered by the Hynet and East Coast Cluster hydrogen projects. Virtually free of heavy industry, it hosts the world’s leading aerospace cluster outside of the United States and the UK’s most productive tech cluster. Bristol is the only major English city outside London that can boast above average productivity rates[1].

The opportunity in the South West doesn’t lie in decarbonising heavy industry. Instead, it is transforming established sectors so that the UK maintains and grows its competitive advantage. As an example, our region’s aerospace sector supports 100,000 jobs and is worth £7 billion to the UK economy. Given this relative economic success , it is easy for policy makers to ignore the potential for growth. To seize the opportunities of net zero, the UK needs to focus on its high opportunity sectors, not just high emissions sectors.

Regional opportunity

The South West is uniquely placed as a high opportunity area. As the Chancellor has said, “the South West, of all the areas in the UK, is really at the forefront of the fight against climate change and also the green industrial revolution.” The lack of heavy industry means that we can move straight into green hydrogen production, without the need for carbon capture and ‘blue hydrogen’ generation methods, such as steam methane reforming.

The region is already a hub of advanced technology. In addition to the multiple high-value engineering and tech companies, we have nationally important R&D facilities such as the Institute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems (IAAPS), the National Composite Centre, GKN’s Global Technology Centre, and Airbus’ forthcoming Zero Emission Development Centre. We host the UK’s largest nuclear project with Hinkley Point C which, combined with existing skilled labour in this area, provides us with the opportunity for large-scale hydrogen generation.

Hydrogen South West

The South West isn’t waiting for outside help to begin developing a hydrogen economy in the region. Bristol Airport has joined forces  with other companies to create Hydrogen South West. Together, we recognise the economic potential that a supply of hydrogen could provide and that the fuel represents a vital component of meeting our own net zero targets.

This new alliance is genuinely cross-sector, combining aviation and aerospace giants Airbus, GKN Aerospace, and easyJet with regional hubs Bristol Port and Bristol Airport. Generation and transportation expertise is provided by EDF’s Hynamics and Wales & West Utilities, along with infrastructure specialists Costain and Wood. The partnership continues to grow, expanding across the South West and outside aviation & aerospace.

Our cross-sector partnership aims to create a hydrogen infrastructure ecosystem in the South West, supported by our world-class universities and thousands of specialist SMEs, who are being brought into the project by our chamber of commerce, Business West. Hydrogen South West is facilitating a distributed demand and supply model, not creating a monolithic network of our own – this provides space for innovation and start-ups.

The flight to net zero

Bristol Airport wants to take a pioneering approach on sustainability and has already set an ambition for net zero operations by 2030. This is a challenging target that will require tens of millions in investment, but there is also a commitment to look beyond this and be an early adopter of hydrogen aircraft.

Aviation is on the cusp of one of its biggest transformations in decades, with the UK having a new target of net zero domestic aviation by 2040 and Airbus aiming to have a hydrogen-powered aircraft commercially available by 2035. 

Achieving its potential

The opportunity for the South West and UK Plc is clear; by drawing on our existing strengths to lead the world in decarbonising technology we can be the first to bring it to a global market, creating, sustaining, and evolving tens of thousands of green jobs and providing sustainable economic growth.  

The risk is equally clear; too often the UK has led the world in innovation only to see promising industries decline as other nations more successfully commercialise that innovation.

Saying that we need to choose between the North West, Humber, and South West is a false choice – the UK has the capability and capacity to transform them simultaneously.

To fulfil its potential, the South West doesn’t need the significant state-led investment and borrowing that’s necessary to transform the traditional industrial clusters in the north.  Instead, it needs recognition from regional and national government so that existing funding mechanisms are channelled and combined with private sector investment and bolstered by new support for research from regional universities and specialist science sectors. This may lack the political allure of Grands Projects but it is a simpler way to unleash growth and enable the creation of new green jobs.

[1] https://www.corecities.com/cities/cities/bristol