Europe's "first ever" green hydrogen production plants, a clutch of smart home energy schemes, and efforts to switch carbon intensive industry to run on renewables are among projects sharing in a £90m low carbon energy funding boost announced by the government today.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said some £70m of the funding would go towards developing several green hydrogen projects, including two of Europe's first ever low carbon H2 production plants, with one situated on the banks of the Mersey and a second planned near Aberdeen.

In addition, a third green hydrogen project is envisaged to harness renewable offshore wind electricity off the coast of Grimsby for electrolysis in order to produce hydrogen, while some of the £70m will also go towards trialling technologies to help switch high carbon industry - such as cement and glass production - from running on fossil fuels to renewable energy, BEIS said.

"Cleaning up emissions from industry and housing is a big challenge but today's £90m investment will set us on the right path as we develop clean technologies like hydrogen," said Business, Energy and Clean Growth Minister Kwasi Kwarteng. "This is an important part of our world-leading efforts in eliminating our contribution to climate change by 2050 while also growing our economy, creating up to two million green collar jobs across the country by 2030."

The remaining £20m funding announced today is then earmarked for projects aimed at cutting household emissions through nine UK-wide smart energy projects, which the Department estimated could see more than 250,000 people living in homes powered by local renewables by 2030.

Successful projects in the £20m competition include a scheme to demolish the former Rugeley coal power station in Staffordshire and turn it into a village of 2,300 energy efficient homes benefitting from geothermal energy from canals and disused mine shafts, according to BEIS.

Another is set to see a microgrid of almost 100 homes established in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, where almost all of the electricity is to be sourced from local wind power. BEIS said the winning projects in the competition could potentially help cut home energy bills in half.

David Smith, chief executive of trade body the Energy Networks Association (ENA), welcomed today's funding announcement as a vote of confidence in the UK's gas infrastructure for helping develop a net zero future built on hydrogen.

"Gas network companies are already world-leading when it comes to innovating and readying our infrastructure to deliver hydrogen to consumers," he said. "We need to build on and develop this expertise further to ensure the UK remains at the forefront."