Myles Kitcher Executive Director, Peel NRE talks about the Government’s Energy Supply Strategy which was published today.

“What today’s strategy recognises is that we can have secure and affordable energy while still meeting out net zero obligations. We welcome the acceleration of hydrogen, with a doubling of the production target by 2030. Here in the North West we’re well placed to help deliver on this ambition, with HyNet, but there are a raft of other hydrogen projects that can make a significant difference, such as the UK first plastic-to-hydrogen facility at Peel NRE’s Protos in Cheshire. We’re looking to roll out the Powerhouse Energy technology with up to 70 sites across the UK which could produce enough hydrogen to fill nearly 5 million buses.

We need the right policy climate to support these ambitions and allow innovation at a local level. At Protos we’ve developed a blueprint for clustering together different low carbon energy technologies and creating a circular economy. This includes plans for a local CO₂ network with carbon capture and storage inevitably going to be a critical part of our transition to net zero.

Reaching the Government’s ambition for 95% of electricity being low carbon by 2030 is going to require a huge roll out of renewables. We would have liked to see a firmer commitment to the role that onshore wind can play and a removal of the current moratorium as well as recognising the huge potential of solar farms. These are the projects that will deliver in the short term, before new nuclear and offshore wind come online.”