In recent years, the intensifying activity around net zero and decarbonising modern life in the UK has clearly demonstrated the significant challenge at hand. Hydrogen is the most abundant element on the planet and has been described as the Swiss Army knife of net zero solutions, with capabilities such as energy delivery, storage and generation. However, there is a danger in viewing it as a silver bullet solution to the UK’s carbon and climate concerns.

As an energy source, hydrogen does not produce any greenhouse gas output. However, to obtain pure hydrogen requires energy input to separate it from other elements (whereas fossil fuels are mined or drilled our directly). Therefore, while hydrogen could be used in many of the processes for which we use fossil fuels today but with no greenhouse gas emissions, the process itself requires more energy than required to get to the same point with fossil fuels. This ultimately means that hydrogen will cost more than fossils fuels do today.

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