NEWS & INSIGHTS | Opinion
Can hydrogen powered machinery build the greenest road in Britain?
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.
This week’s net zero news: Spending Review 2025; Hydrogen Powered Construction Machinery; Vehicle-to-Grid
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 look at the 2025 Spending Review, the successful completion of the UK’s first large-scale trial of hydrogen-powered construction machinery, and the first European city with a vehicle‑to‑grid (V2G) car‑sharing service.
The Spending Review (SR) 2025 shows that clean energy is a key priority for the government.
In the 2025 Spending Review (SR), the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) will see the largest increase in total departmental spending, with a 16% rise, reaching £12.6 billion by 2028-2029. This doesn’t include the £14.2 billion funding for the 3.2 GW Sizewell C nuclear plant (link here).
Research and Development (R&D) is a key priority with R&D funding increasing from £20 billion in 2025-56 to £22.6 billion per year by 2029-30.
Great British Energy and Great British Nuclear will receive combined funding of £8.3 billion, with £2.5 billion allocated to the small modular reactor (SMR) programme. Nuclear fusion will receive over £2.5 billion.
Additionally, £9.4 billion has been allocated to carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS). The government has announced support for the Acorn and Viking CCS clusters and will provide the development funding to advance their delivery. The final investment decision (FID) will be taken later this Parliament, subject to project readiness and affordability. The funding will also help fill the storage capacity of the East Coast Cluster and HyNet Clusters.
Port expansions are critical to enable floating offshore wind at scale. The spending review confirmed the business case for Inverness & Cromarty Firth Green Freeport has been fully approved by the Scottish and UK Governments. It will receive £25 million in funding, as will the Forth Green Freeport and the Celtic Freeport. Up to £80 million has been confirmed for port investment in Port Talbot.
The review establishes the North East Scotland Investment zone will be centred in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire, focusing on floating offshore wind, green hydrogen and harnessing digital technology to drive innovation in green energy solutions.
UK successfully completes first large-scale trial of hydrogen powered construction machinery
The Lower Thames Crossing project has successfully completed the UK’s first large-scale trial of hydrogen-powered construction machinery. The trial took place at Gallagher’s Hermitage Quarry in Kent, using a JCB 540-180H Loadall powered by a hydrogen combustion engine. Gallagher Group hosted the trial, JCB provided the machinery and Ryze Power supplied low-carbon hydrogen.
The Lower Thames Crossing aims to be the greenest road ever built in Britain, with a target to cut construction emissions by 70%.
When construction begins, potentially in 2026, the project will use hydrogen to power its heavy construction machinery, which is traditionally hard to electrify. JCB’s hydrogen-powered machinery replaced the use of an existing diesel-powered JCB Loadall and successfully demonstrated the safe operation of hydrogen combustion powered equipment and mobile refuelling infrastructure.
Loadall powered by a hydrogen combustion engine
Image source here.
It is estimated the hydrogen-powered equipment cuts around 205kg of CO2 per machine weekly compared to diesel counterparts. It will also help jumpstart the development of a hydrogen ecosystem in the Thames Estuary. In May, JCB secured full EU-type approval of its hydrogen combustion engine for use in non-road mobile machinery. This approval means the hydrogen engine has been approved for sale and for use in machines and third-party original equipment manufacturer (OEM) equipment in each of the 27 EU member states.
The first European city with a vehicle‑to‑grid (V2G) car‑sharing service
Utrecht in the Netherlands has launched Europe’s first large-scale Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) car-sharing service: Utrecht energize. Utrecht energize is a collaboration between Renault Group, MyWheels, We Drive Solar and the Municipality of Utrecht.
Utrecht ranks among Europe’s most progressive renewable‑energy cities, with 35% of roofs equipped with solar panels.
Managing the grid with a high proportion of intermittent renewables requires a system that quickly adapts to the changes in energy generation and consumption. V2G technology uses bidirectional charging, allowing electric vehicles to store energy and feed it back to the local grid during peak demand, supporting grid stability.
The first 50 bidirectional charge points have been installed, and 50 Renault 5 E‑Tech electric cars are available. The goal is to scale up to 500 bidirectional cars which could deliver 10 % of the flexibility required in the Utrecht region to balance solar and wind generated electricity at peak times.
Image source here.
Subscribe for the latest updates
