Hydrogen Transport Programme (HTP)

The HTP was launched by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and will provide funding via an open competition for both Hydrogen Refuelling Stations (HRS) and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The programme will be supported in two stages:

Stage 1 will commit up to £9m to 50:50 match fund around seven HRSs to be completed in 2018/19, plus captive fleets.  Funding will commence in November 2017.

Stage 2 will commit up to £14m to fund up to ten HRSs plus captive fleets and will begin in December 2018, subject to market developments over Stage 1.

The funding will allow additional larger capacity HRS to be built, whilst optimising the utilisation of these and existing stations by providing funding to support the purchase of vehicle fleets that can be refuelled at all HRS.

The HTP Programme has two primary objectives:

• To increase the number of publicly-accessible hydrogen refuelling stations
• To increase the number of fuel cell-powered electric vehicles on UK roads

Stages of the HTP
The following chart details the programme stages and application process.

Important secondary objectives include:

• Maximising the benefit to the UK hydrogen refuelling network, through ease of access and by reinforcing it (some slight redundancy of station locations will ensure that downtime has less impact for the customer), by extending it (enabling vehicles to travel further) and by increasing the density (more stations between nodes will enable more vehicles to travel within an area).
• Increasing the amount of hydrogen used and so increasing familiarity, real-world experience and the economics of its delivery.
• Increasing station throughput, improving the economics of the stations and reducing the likelihood of technical problems linked to idle equipment.
• Enabling future expansion of both network and individual stations, by judicious placement or the potential to add future capacity.
• Ensuring credibility in the eyes of all stakeholders, including government, local authorities, fleet operators, station operators and the general public.
• Enabling, where possible, additional applications that require hydrogen, such as stationary applications or non-fuel cell vehicles, as well as developing the case for expansion of the sector, for example through future links to trains or ferries, or to renewable hydrogen.
• Helping strengthen the supply chain by providing evidence of emerging markets and hence some mitigation against the risk of early participation.
• Increasing knowledge throughout the sector, including expert knowledge on performance and failures, best practice, and understanding of refuelling patterns and how to move forward with network optimisation.

For more information on this programme, please click here.