Arup Q&A: How Hydrogen Could Disrupt the Energy Industry

To accelerate the progress towards net zero emissions — while also driving economic growth — hydrogen must play a key role in the UK government’s energy strategies.
This is according to Arup, a multinational professional services firm specialising in design, engineering, architecture, planning and advisory services across all areas of the built environment.
In 2024, Arup collaborated with the Scottish government to explore the growing integration of hydrogen and the establishment of a hydrogen economy.
The firm argues that policymakers should create conditions to stimulate demand while equipping hydrogen to compete on equal terms with other decarbonisation options.
This, it asserts, is crucial for building a resilient energy system.
Arup also highlights the importance of well-constructed policy and market design.
It stresses that collaboration between government and industries is necessary to create innovative market frameworks that deliver taxpayer value and provide mechanisms to mitigate risks for businesses.
Additionally, hydrogen offers the potential to create high quality jobs that demand skilled and well-trained workers. It also presents export opportunities for the UK in a rapidly expanding global market.
The Scottish Hydrogen Assessment Project, for instance, identifies a possible £25bn (US$30.4bn) economic boost for Scotland and anticipates the creation of 300,000 new jobs by 2045.
Simon Evans, Arup’s Global Digital Energy Leader and David Hogg, Senior Energy Systems Consultant, discuss how hydrogen could transform the UK economy and deliver lasting benefits with Sustainability Magazine.
In your view how does Arup positively contribute to the hydrogen space and decarbonisation efforts?
David: Arup's multidisciplinary approach, which integrates expertise across different fields, is particularly well-suited to hydrogen due to its complexity and the range of factors involved.
By bringing together teams from water, electricity and gas, we occupy a rare space in the industry, with the ability to access specialist knowledge and an understanding of the lessons learned from previous projects to avoid similar problems. This makes feasibility studies and procurement processes more efficient, allowing us to identify potential challenges early and move projects forward more quickly.
Our integrated approach ensures that we work collaboratively to develop new solutions for where they are required, which can support the UK’s ambition to reach its net zero goals.
How can policymakers most effectively stimulate demand for hydrogen to ensure it can compete with other decarbonisation pathways? What specific tools or incentives are needed to create a level playing field for hydrogen in the energy market?
Simon: Incentivising and improving secure and resilient data sharing across the energy market, at scale, is an important step for policy-makers if they are to make hydrogen a major energy source for the UK.
To demonstrate why this is so important, we can look to the relationship between the UK’s gas network data and any future hydrogen infrastructure.
Data from the former will be essential to understanding how the latter can be delivered nationally, as they will be using the same pathways. However, whilst understanding of need for this data sharing is clear, progress towards delivering it is slow.
We developed a study for the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero which outlines the government’s opportunity to support and fast track the creation of a robust energy system data sharing infrastructure.
Our study found that the main obstacles to making this a reality were actually socio, not technical challenges. To overcome this, we need to foster a collaborative attitude and approach across the industry, which will better support decision-making and enable the inclusion of diverse perspectives.
The Scottish Hydrogen Assessment Project highlighted significant economic and employment benefits from developing a hydrogen economy. What strategies should the UK government implement to ensure the creation of high-quality jobs in the hydrogen sector? How can these strategies support export opportunities in the growing international market?
David: The hydrogen sector is continuing to grow and with that we are seeing an uptick in job creation. However, the overarching challenge remains: we need projects to get off the ground.
During the early stages of a project’s planning, we are focussed on assessing viability — whether a project can meet its technical, financial and operational goals — and this is where we uncover stumbling blocks.
Each hydrogen initiative requires collaboration between local authorities, regulatory bodies and utility companies to ensure all necessary elements are in place. When this coordination fails, companies often abandon their hydrogen projects — a frustratingly common outcome in the sector.
To tackle this, one of the government’s first ambitions should be to encourage greater communication and information sharing across a project’s stakeholders — and ensuring this is done as early as possible in a project’s development.
The intended consequence of creating high-quality jobs in the hydrogen sector requires government and industry getting these foundational steps right first.
Explore the latest edition of Sustainability Magazine and be part of the conversation at our global conference series, Sustainability LIVE.
Discover all our upcoming events and secure your tickets today.
Sustainability Magazine is a BizClik brand