Hydrogen Heat in the North West – New Report.
Decarbonising domestic heat is one of the biggest challenges facing the UK as it looks to deliver on its Net Zero commitments. Heat in buildings is responsible for nearly 20% of all UK emissions and yet there has been minimal progress made in recent years.
According to the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) most recent Progress Report, emissions from buildings have increased by 6% since 20191. There are several reasons why the UK has struggled to decarbonise this important sector.
The UK has one of Europe’s oldest and poorly insulated housing stocks2 , making electrification more challenging to implement. The Green Living Index, designed in Germany to assessthe thermal efficiency of a nation’s accommodation, ranks Britain 23rd out of 283.
As such, the UK cannot rely on a single solution to decarbonise domestic heat but will need several solutions including heat pumps, hydrogen and heat networks.
The cost effectiveness and applicability of these solutions is likely to vary by geography, housing density, housing type and existing fabric efficiency and as such, the UK must adopt a “horses for courses” approach, supporting all solutions to deliver decarbonisation within the domestic building sector.
It is also essential that at this early stage, the UK retains optionality and takes action to ensure that the full range of solutions remains available in the future.
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Hydrogen Heat in the North West, November 4, 2022
