Frustrated United Kingdom Public Servants are reported to be resisting Prime Minister, Boris Johnson’s sudden conversion to hydrogen as a major source of clean energy at the expense of electricity.
Mr Johnson’s announcement that he wanted to make the UK the “Qatar of hydrogen” caught many officials by surprise after years of promoting green energy through wind and solar.
It came as construction equipment firm, JCB announced it had signed a deal worth billions of pounds to buy hydrogen generated from non-fossil fuel based sources.
In a statement, JCB said hydrogen could be put through the country’s gas pipe network to heat homes with compatible new boilers.
It can be manufactured in two ways: So-called ‘green’ hydrogen is made using electricity generated from renewable sources while ‘blue’ hydrogen’ is created using natural gas.
Government sources said Ministers were having to push back against Public Servants who were opposing the ‘blue’ hydrogen route.
One source said Cabinet Office officials had refused to promote hydrogen as a viable alternative at the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow because oil and gas giants like BP and Shell were investing in it.
A source close to the Government told journalists that Public Servants had “made a bet several years ago on electricity” and were resistant to looking at other forms of clean energy.
JCB announced later that its deal for ‘green’ hydrogen had been signed with Australian firm, Fortescue Future Industries, in a partnership the company called the first of its kind.
London, 1 November 2021
