Groceries in Teesside to be delivered by 'green' vehicles thanks to new £7m hydrogen refuelling station

The Department for Transport (DfT) said £7m had now been allocated to build a publicly accessible refuelling station, which will initially serve up to 25 zero-emission HGV vehicles, including supermarket delivery trucks. The project, due to be fully up and running by 2025, will be delivered by fuel distributor Exolum from its Riverside base in Haverton Hill, near Middlesbrough.

Middlesbrough is already home to the Tees Valley Hydrogen Transport Hub at Tees AMP which is piloting various projects demonstrating how green hydrogen, which does not produce harmful emissions when used in a fuel cell, can be utilised in transport.

In August the Government revealed an £8m plus investment in the hub – a national centre of excellence – would help develop hydrogen-powered airport ground-based support vehicles, such as tow trucks for aeroplanes and sweepers to clean runways. These will eventually be based at Teesside Airport, helping it reach its goal of being net zero carbon by 2030.

Meanwhile, £300,000 has also been announced for the Tees Valley Combined Authority which will be accessed by colleges and training institutions in the region so they can buy hydrogen training equipment to upskill students and people working in local industry.

The DfT said the hydrogen transport hub, which was officially launched in 2020 with a visit from then Transport Minister Rachel Maclean, was creating “significant levels of industry interest” with BP and Protium Green Solutions among companies planning to develop large scale green hydrogen facilities in the area.

It said investment to date would “position the region at the forefront of the hydrogen transport sector, bringing skills, jobs, exports and growth, and provide evidence and experience to support future policy, strategy and investment decisions over the coming years”.

Technology and Decarbonisation Minister Anthony Browne said: “It’s fantastic to see the Tees Valley continue to be a trailblazer in this vital technology to decarbonise heavier vehicles – leading the way for the wider rollout of green hydrogen.”

Mr Browne said the biggest sector in terms of carbon emissions was transport and hydrogen-powered vehicles, along with electric vehicles, was a “key component” in reducing emissions.

He said: “As well as HGVs, it will probably be of use for maritime transport and vehicles that are heavy and need a lot of power and are far from sources of electricity, for example bulldozers and diggers, also airport equipment and hydrogen is probably the best way to deliver that.

“It’s a whole new technology and new system, you need people making the green hydrogen in the first place, you need people transporting it, you need people using it with the likes of refuelling stations, and it makes sense having all this close together, which is what’s happening in the Tees Valley.”

Mr Browne said in some instances electric battery power “was not there yet” for some forms of transport, for example HGVs or large cargo ships.

He added: “Hydrogen fuel cells don’t produce carbon dioxide which is good for tackling global warming and they don’t produce air pollution, so no particulate matter comes out.”

Mr Browne said there could be 12,000 “good, high value” jobs connected to the hydrogen economy by 2030 and “many hundreds” in the Tees Valley.

The minister was asked about the decision to end a potential green hydrogen home heating trial in Redcar towards the end of last year, but he said another department the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero was leading policy on this.

He said: “There is research going on into hydrogen fuelling people’s homes – it can be mixed with natural gas, reducing emissions, and there are people that think that the best solution in the long run is replacing natural gas boilers with hydrogen boilers.

“But a lot of this is new, developing technology and as we go forward in this transition we will see what works and what doesn’t work as people put more research and development into it.

It’s only through doing things like what we are doing at the Tees Valley Hydrogen Transport Hub that we find out what lives up to its promise and what doesn’t live up to it.

“There are lots of potential uses for hydrogen, but until we invest, do the research and development, get the whole infrastructure in place and train people up in the jobs we won’t know how big it is going to be.”

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “Our area is leading the way in developing the cleaner, healthier and safer transport of the future. This is another great example of how we are creating innovative solutions, such as greener deliveries to our supermarkets.

“As the UK’s first hydrogen transport hub we are in a fantastic position to take advantage of projects such as this, which will deliver further jobs and investment needed to drive our local economy forward. As more of these major projects are confirmed, it’s also essential that we develop skills in our workforce so this funding is vital to ensure local people can take advantage of the well-paid jobs this new technology is bringing.”