Sheffield must seize this chance to shape a low carbon future

It’s been a year since the city council announced a climate emergency and people are rightly asking what’s been done, writes business editor David Walsh.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Not a lot in terms of the structural day-to-day upheaval we’ve been told will be necessary to prevent our children frying.

But it has just approved a £1.4m plan for 22 electric car charging stations around the city, 10 will be for taxis only. The project fits well with plans by our biggest cab company - City Taxis - to convert its entire 1,500-strong fleet to electric.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This is great news for air quality and specifically the Clean Air Zone which is coming to the city centre.

The Star Business Editor David Walsh.The Star Business Editor David Walsh.
The Star Business Editor David Walsh.

But what about the wider picture? If the cars are charged with electricity from fossil fuels we still have a problem.

That’s perhaps why the hydrogen sector, and Sheffield company ITM Power in particular, is attracting so much attention.

The firm makes refuelling stations for hydrogen cars using electricity from a wind turbine, which is run through an electrolyser that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

They are totally green. The firm’s equipment is also an answer to what happens to turbines when the wind doesn’t blow - or when it blows too much and they have to be turned off.

ITM Power's new factory off Shepcote Lane is set to open in August.ITM Power's new factory off Shepcote Lane is set to open in August.
ITM Power's new factory off Shepcote Lane is set to open in August.

For hydrogen can be stored indefinitely or pumped into the national gas grid or used in industrial processes such as oil refining.

The company attracted more than £90m in funding last year and is building what will be the biggest electrolyser factory in the world in Darnall.

Many were surprised when the government passed a law committing the UK to being ‘net carbon neutral’ by 2050. Some thought it was a rushed decision and an unachievable goal.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Even if it is, it has clearly focused minds. Yesterday, Conservative party chair Amanda Milling visited the company after asking for a tour. On Wednesday the firm’s share price hit an all time high.

It seems the government - and the world - is waking up to the potential of hydrogen. And, thanks to ITM Power, Sheffield is at the heart of it. Rarely can the city have had the chance to benefit from a technology set to play a vital part in our future. We must do all we can to power it up.