
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. It’s all around us in water, plants, animals and, of course, humans. From an energy perspective, hydrogen is exciting because it has the potential to cut carbon in parts of the economy that are tough to decarbonise. That’s things like industrial processes, heavy transport and heating. There are also lots of ways to produce hydrogen.
When hydrogen is burnt, the only waste product is water vapour. That makes it a clean alternative to natural gas (methane). So harnessing hydrogen could make a huge difference to carbon emissions and play a critical part in achieving net zero.
But tapping into hydrogen’s potential is not easy. The big challenge is scaling up production and bringing down the price to kickstart a hydrogen economy worldwide.
At NGV, we’re bringing our expertise to ambitious projects in the US and UK that will open-up new frontiers for a future hydrogen economy. These include the creation of a proposed 'hydrogen hub’ on Long Island in the Northeastern US that will establish a cluster of local green hydrogen production, storage and demand.
Long Island is an ideal location for the hub given the high power demand in the New York City metro and limited transmission connections. The vision for the project is to develop an integrated net-zero energy system that uses clean fuels like hydrogen to meet demand for power heat and transport.
The goal is to produce low-carbon hydrogen alongside the capture and storage of CO2, with a hydrogen production facility up and running by 2030. The project will be located close to the large centres of demand in London and the South East. Once complete, it will be able to produce 700 MW of blue hydrogen a year and capture and store 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 annually.