As part of the government’s Energy Innovation Programme, the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) created the Industrial Fuel Switching (IFS) and Hydrogen Supply (HS) innovation programmes to help reach net zero by 2050. Both programmes offered100% funding for eligible projects.
As it is necessary to switch industrial processes from carbon-intensive to low carbon fuels to reach net zero goals, the £21 million IFS competition aimed to stimulate early investment in and development of fuel switching processes and technologies, so that a range of technologies would be available by 2030. The competition included three stages. The third stage, which included four studies and received most of the funds (£18.4m), demonstrated the use of hydrogen, biomass, and electrical heating across a range of industry sectors.
Low carbon hydrogen could play an important role in decarbonising industry, power, heat and transport. However, for the market to grow, potential users need to be confident in the supply of sufficient amounts of low carbon hydrogen at a competitive price.
The £33 million HS programme sought to develop, demonstrate and reduce the cost of low carbon bulk hydrogen solutions (production, storage and supply), and was aimed at innovations involving pre-commercial technologies with a medium level of maturity. Delivered in two phases, the programme funded 13 feasibility studies and five demonstration programmes from 2019 – 2022.
DESNZ commissioned CAG Consultants, with support from GC Insight and Verco, to evaluate both programmes.
The impact evaluation (there is a separate process evaluation) aimed to establish to what extent and how the programmes and their funded projects produced the impacts and outcomes intended. These included wider goals such as improving understanding & reducing uncertainty / risk amongst stakeholders, stimulating further investment, innovation and deployment, and contributing to future/wider impacts.
The evaluation drew on a combination of sources:
The data were analysed through several approaches:
Among the detailed findings in the evaluation, CAG found that overall, both the IFS and HS programmes achieved their intended outcomes during the programme’s lifespan and made some contribution to two longer-term goals.
The three case studies produced by GC Insight can be found here, along with the full evaluation report authored by CAG.
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