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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will undertake a comparative assessment of the cost of moving excess renewable energy between Scotland and other parts of UK by (a) reinforcing electricity grid infrastructure, (b) converting electricity to hydrogen and blending into the national gas transmission system and (c) converting electricity to hydrogen and injecting into a dedicated 100 per cent hydrogen pipeline.

The Government expects hydrogen to play an important role in decarbonising the economy, including the power sector. The Government is working to accelerate timescales for electricity network infrastructure deployment to ensure renewable power can flow from where it is generated – including in Scotland – to centres of demand. The Government intends for hydrogen to provide flexible low carbon generation capacity in the UK’s future power system and is currently reviewing hydrogen network and storage requirements, with a consultation planned for later this year. The Government is targeting a policy decision for blending up to 20% hydrogen into gas distribution networks in 2023 and will also assess the case for blending at transmission level.