Question to the Wales Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what steps he is taking to grow the hydrogen economy in Wales.

The Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution confirms the UK Government’s ambition, working with industry, for 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030. As we progress towards this ambition, we would hope to see around 1GW of hydrogen production capacity by 2025.

This will be supported by the £240m Net Zero Hydrogen Fund confirmed out to 2025, intended to support both CCUS enabled (blue) hydrogen and electrolytic (green) hydrogen production.

In the first half of this year, the government will publish a Hydrogen Strategy which will set out an action plan for decarbonisation and expansion of hydrogen in the 2020s across the UK.

There are already promising signs of interest and innovation around hydrogen production and utilisation in Wales, which the UK Government is backing.

For example, the Riversimple Clean Mobility Fleet was awarded £1.2m from the UK Government’s Hydrogen Transport Programme to develop fuel cell electric vehicles.

The Milford Haven Energy Kingdom has received a £1m grant from UK Research and Innovation to develop diverse, local seed markets to support the transition to hydrogen and renewables along the Milford Haven Waterway.

The South Wales Industrial Cluster has received funding from the UK Government’s Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge to explore options to transition the region’s industries to net-zero, including by considering the role of low-carbon hydrogen.

I and my officials continue to work closely with colleagues across government to raise awareness of the interest in Wales in the role of low-carbon hydrogen in the transition to net-zero.