UK's First Hydrogen Fuel Filling Opens In 2024

Filling in hydrogen fuel. (Doc. Twitter/Autocar)

JAKARTA - England will open its first hydrogen refueling center in 2024. This charging station will be built by British startup, Element 2, and supported by government grants of 8 million pounds, or around Rp. 155 billion.

Hydrogen refueling centers will be available for commercial vehicles such as transport trucks (HGV) and cars. It also means cars such as Toyota Mirai, Hyundai Nexo, and BMW iX5 Hidrogen will be able to use charging technology from Element 2.

Element 2 CEO, Tim Harper, told Autocar, August 2, that the first station will open early next year at Teesside International Airport. This plan is to support the winner of another grant fund, Ulemco, which will develop hydrogen-fueled airport vehicles, such as aircraft tow trucks and runway sweepers.

Harper confirmed that there are 30 station locations to be built and Element 2 he said is also working with a number of gas station operators and hydrogen vehicle manufacturers.

"The strategy is to have infrastructure first, before these vehicles arrive in large quantities," Harper said.

"There is a wave of [commercial] hydrogen vehicles coming. It's just a matter of when, not whether, and to be honest with this funding, we now know when. This funding gives us confidence, because it's public money that has gone through a lot of checks before it got to us."

The UK's first hydrogen refueling center is an important step in developing hydrogen transport in the country considering there are 600,000 trucks operating daily in the UK that account for 18% of highway transportation emissions.

As for the calculation of its needs, trucks usually consume 50kg of hydrogen per day, buses are 20kg, and cars are only 1kg.

Hydrogen transport is a technology that it says is more promising to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help achieve Net Zero's goals.