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 make an assessment of the potential merits of conducting a hydrogen village trial by 2025 in Wales to better inform a policy decision on the use of hydrogen for heating buildings by 2026.

As set out in my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, the Government is supporting industry to deliver community trials of 100% hydrogen heating. BEIS and Ofgem have invited the Gas Distribution Network Operators to submit outline proposals for village trials by December 2021. The Government expect that one or more of these will then be selected to be developed into detailed proposals. Final decisions on where the trials will take place are expected to be taken in 2023.