Any minute now hopefully the first allocation round for the UK's hydrogen business model for green hydrogen will open.  We know that there are a number of developers lining up for this but it struck me that it might be useful to recap on some of the things that are likely to need to be demonstrated in order to be eligible to apply.  Years of experience from the renewable electricity contract for difference process, point to the fact that applicants need to be careful at the eligibility stage.  A procurement type mindset needs to be adopted and at the risk of stating the obvious, the questions need to be answered clearly and the evidence required to demonstrate eligibility needs to conform in every aspect.  Simple errors can result in a project falling out. Projects should be considering and gathering evidence if they have not already; 

- of deliverability to meet 2025 deadline

- that the project is at TRL level 7

- that the project is a new build hydrogen project

- that it will be a 5MW electrolytic project or above

- that it can show at least one offtaker and significant progress on contracting with that offtaker (ideally you need a contract quickly for the evaluation process) 

 - that the offtaker is robust 

-  that the electrolyser supplier is on board and you have documentary evidence to show that they are engaged even if not contractually bound in

- that the project will meet the Low Carbon Hydrogen Standard

- that you have a financing plan in place and if necessary, have had discussions with funders

Whilst pulling all this together it is important to have an eye to the evaluation criteria so that if you are successful in the eligibility checks you can present the best picture quickly on ; deliverability, emissions, cost effective hydrogen production, economic benefits, market development and learning and additionality of green electricity source. 

It is possible of course that this may be tweaked by BEIS but it is a good starting point