Today the Carbon Trust is announcing its new clean hydrogen accelerator, which aims to help secure the UK’s energy supply and support climate targets.
The project will join up industry players, backed by BEIS, the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The Clean Hydrogen Innovation Programme (CHIP) aims to speed up the deployment of clean hydrogen, by reducing the end-to-end cost through technical innovation so that it becomes cost competitive with conventional alternatives.
Clean hydrogen is defined as hydrogen that is produced with a low level of greenhouse gas1, for example using surplus renewable energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen through a process called electrolysis.
The model used for this accelerator will follow the same approach as other highly successful collaborative innovation programmes run by the Carbon Trust, including the Offshore Wind Accelerator which has helped to reduce the cost of offshore wind and accelerate growth.
The high end-to-end cost of clean hydrogen is one of the main barriers to its use. CHIP’s key focus will be on reducing the costs and risks of clean hydrogen through targeting technology innovation at components where industry identify there is the highest cost reduction potential.
Read more: Clean hydrogen
