Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much of the £171 million announced by Government for hydrogen projects in the Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy is allocated for blue hydrogen projects.

The Government announced £171m of funding to support nine projects looking to decarbonise activity across five industrial clusters through the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge. Projects in Scotland, South Wales, Humberside, Teesside and the North West will all receive government support to deploy a range of low-carbon infrastructure and technologies, including but not limited to, hydrogen.

Specific projects that will be supporting and exploring the use of blue hydrogen include:

• The Northern Endurance Partnership (£24m of IDC funding). Creation of an offshore CO₂ transport and storage system connecting two innovative onshore capture projects into one initial geological store, enabling blue hydrogen production.
• Scotland Net Zero (£33.3m for onshore and offshore elements). Blue hydrogen is one element of carbon capture and storage plans, to help provide a tangible path to the decarbonisation of the Scottish industrial cluster.
• Net Zero Teesside (£28m). Project includes exploring ways to produce large scale blue hydrogen through the cluster plan project.
• Zero Carbon Humber Partnership (£21.5m). Delivering low-carbon infrastructure, comprising CO₂ and hydrogen transmission pipelines linking the region's major emitters, providing a pathway to deliver at-scale decarbonisation. Includes development of a blue hydrogen production facility to enable large industrial energy customers across the Cluster to switch from natural gas to hydrogen.
• South Wales (£20m). Blue hydrogen forms one part of their sustainable clean growth plan.