NEWS & INSIGHTS | Opinion
2025: A pivotal year for UK offshore wind, hydrogen and CCS
Luca Corradi
Luca works to bring “the outside in”, connecting innovators and academics across sectors and disciplines, to explore the latest technologies that could be adopted to address oil and gas industry challenges. Leading The Net Zero Technology Centre’s horizon scanning activity, he identifies emerging technology trends, cutting through the hype to identify potential areas of impact and application. With a background in business and organisational change leadership, Luca has developed a strong network and is passionate about harnessing this to deliver the next generation of the net zero energy industry.
Outside work Luca loves reading, music and travel. He is married with two young daughters and a dog. He enjoys the rare motorbike ride in Scotland and even rarer ski trip on the Alps.
Hydrogen Investment, Clean Energy Expansion, and Infrastructure Reform
Chief Technology Officer at NZTC, Luca Corradi, and his team closely monitor the global net zero landscape. They follow the trends, policies, investments, and technological innovations that, together, bring the world closer to its shared climate goals. Learn more about our horizon scanning service. This week, Luca and his team explore what’s to come in 2025, plans to put the North Sea at the heart of Britain’s clean energy future to drive economic growth and look at the development of underground hydrogen storage in Europe.
UK Government launches consultation to transform North Sea into clean energy hub
The UK Government has launched a consultation on a plan to put the North Sea at the centre of Britain’s clean energy future. The objective is to make the North Sea a world leader in offshore clean energy, whilst ensuring a sustainable transition for the oil and gas industry where oil and gas workers can take advantage of the energy transition.
The plan looks at harnessing existing oil and gas infrastructure, natural assets and expertise to deploy new technologies such as hydrogen, carbon capture and wind. Additionally, it consults on a new regime to replace the windfall tax on oil and gas profits, which comes to an end in 2030.
The consultation commits to maintaining existing fields for their lifetime, working with businesses and communities on a managed transition, while also implementing the commitment to issue no licences to explore new fields. The current principal objective of the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) is to maximise the economic recovery of offshore oil and gas resources from the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) . The government believes this objective must be revised and are welcoming views on different approaches.
The Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) has launched a consultation that aims to put the North Sea at the centre of Britain’s clean energy future
€3 million awarded to HyDRA Project to advance underground hydrogen storage in Europe
The Clean Hydrogen Partnership and its members have awarded €3 million in funding to the HyDRA project. This project aims to advance the understanding and implementation of underground hydrogen storage (UHS) across Europe.
HydRA is a consortium consisting of eight leading research institutions and one enterprise across six countries. HyDRA is collaborating with a network of storage site operators and includes over 20 sedimentary basins across Europe.
Meeting climate targets, diversifying the energy market, and ensuring a reliable energy supply require large-scale hydrogen storage solutions, as current facilities cannot handle the anticipated increase in hydrogen availability.
The objectives of HyDRA are to investigate hydrogen-consuming microbial activity and its interaction with storage formations to establish risk mitigation strategies, enhance understanding of bio-geochemical processes affecting hydrogen storage in porous media, and provide science-based recommendations to support the development of International Organisation Standardisation (ISO) and regulatory codes for underground hydrogen storage.
The data gathered will be instrumental in shaping monitoring and remediation technologies for safe and efficient Ultra High Speed (UHS) deployment.
HyDRA – a new project to advance underground hydrogen storage across Europe has received funding.
Report by Slaughter and May identifies UK Clean Energy Trends to Watch in 2025
Renewable energy development will accelerate in 2025. According to Clean Power 2030 (CP30), offshore wind will become the backbone of the UK’s power sector. The estimated requirement is 43-50 GW by 2030. Allocation Round (AR) 7 and 8 will be crucial in securing the necessary offshore wind capacity to meet these ambitious targets. After delays, the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) programme is will conclude by mid-2025s. This includes a decision on wholesale power price reform in Britain, which would reshape the UK power market.
Hydrogen faced a disappointing year in 2024, with less activity than anticipated. However, DESNZ has emphasised hydrogen has a critical role to reach CP30 targets. Final investment decisions (FIDs) will be made in 2025. Of the 11 projects under the first hydrogen allocation round (HAR1), three have signed Low Carbon Hydrogen Agreements. The first electrolytic hydrogen project under HAR1 expected to become operational later this year. The shortlist of projects for HAR2 has not been published yet.
The UK carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) industry made significant strides in 2024. £21.7 billion was allocated for the first two CCUS clusters and two projects reached FIDs. However, progress on the next two CCS clusters has been delayed, with further updates expected in the spring at the earliest. Construction on the first CCS project in the UK is due to begin in mid-2025.
Additionally, artificial intelligence (AI) and nuclear energy will have an increasing relationship. The UK plans to harness AI to advance nuclear energy objectives and use nuclear to meet the demands of AI data centres.
The report by Slaughter and May identifies trends to watch in 2025 within UK energy and infrastructure.
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