The North West Hydrogen Alliance (NWHA) said in a report that the hydrogen sector could boost the region’s economy by £3.4 billion and create 11,500 jobs by 2030.

The report, released on Tuesday, covers production, infrastructure and end use of hydrogen in the North West of England.

It says most of the jobs would be created in construction and engineering for building hydrogen infrastructure, with a knock-on effect in professional services and business roles.

Earlier this year NWHA said demand for low-carbon hydrogen in the North West could support up to 2GW of hydrogen production by 2030 – a fifth of the government’s target for the whole of the UK.

The North West is one of the first two decarbonised energy clusters given UK government backing with HyNet North West selected as a Track-1 Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) cluster. 

A number of hydrogen projects are already underway in the region, including green hydrogen, hydrogen buses, trials of hydrogen in industry and salt cavern hydrogen storage. 

Dave Richardson, Interim Chair of the NWHA and Decarbonisation Solutions Director at Costain said: “With projects like HPP1, HyNet and Trafford Green Hydrogen currently underway, there’s already plenty of opportunities to get involved in the net zero transition, whether you’re starting out in your career or looking to transfer skills honed in other sectors.

“Developing a hydrogen economy will also help safeguard many thousand more jobs as industry in the region switches to this low carbon fuel on their decarbonisation journey.”

The UK’s first large scale, low carbon hydrogen production plant HPP1 is being developed by NWHA member EET Hydrogen at the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. With construction expected to begin later this year, the hub could produce 1GW of hydrogen by 2030.