Current status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 24 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what barriers to hydrogen production development in Scotland it has identified.
The Scottish Government is fully committed to helping the Scottish hydrogen sector develop. To help identify and better understand the barriers to the deployment of hydrogen production in Scotland we have established the Scottish Hydrogen Industry Forum (SHIF) chaired by myself. It includes representatives from our electricity and gas network operators and a list of members is available on the Scottish Government website here Scottish Hydrogen Industry Forum - gov.scot.
Expertise in hydrogen related planning has been identified as a potential barrier to timely determination of planning consents for hydrogen production development. The creation of a Planning Hub in Scotland was announced on 10 September 2024. This initiative is providing support to planning authorities to improve their skills and capacity to deliver planning determinations promptly. The initial focus of the planning hub has been to improve the pace of the consenting process for hydrogen developments.
The high cost of electricity has also been identified as a potential barrier to the deployment of hydrogen production in Scotland. This is a wider and complex issue.
The introduction of the Hydrogen Production Business Model (HPBM) Programme by the UK Government is a welcome step in incentivising the production and use of renewable hydrogen. However, the slow roll out of the programme has been identified as a potential barrier to deployment may be undermining investors’ confidence.
It is vital now that all efforts are made to support and to streamline the decision-making process for HAR 2 to allow shortlisted projects to move forward with urgency.
A lack of clarity on UKG decisions on the future of the gas grid and the UK-wide hydrogen network and hydrogen blending is also leading to uncertainty amongst investors and developers.
Many of the levers required to support the emergence of a flourishing hydrogen economy in the devolved nations are reserved to the UK Government, as highlighted above and so we will continue to work closely with the UKG to ensure that our collective vision for the development of the hydrogen economy is aligned, and the benefits are realised across all nations of the UK.