Hydrogen heating revolution feared over before it has begun.
The boss of British Gas has hit back at claims hydrogen will not play a major role in the future heating of homes days after Grant Shapps suggested it was no longer seen as a realistic option.
Chris O’Shea, chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica, warned that ruling out hydrogen boilers for domestic use risks derailing the push towards net zero and pushing up bills.
His comments will be seen as riposte to Mr Shapps, the Energy Security Secretary, who told journalists that the technical challenges of switching millions of homes from natural gas boilers to hydrogen looked too great.
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Along with electrically powered heat pumps, hydrogen boilers have been suggested as a green alternative to gas boilers because burning hydrogen produces no carbon dioxide.
Mr O’Shea, The Telegraph, said that
Too many people are falling into the trap of thinking heat pumps are the only solution to decarbonise heat in homes.
He added: “Suggestions that hydrogen is unlikely to be part of the solution for home heating, before the results of extensive tests are known, risks undermining the energy transition and increasing the costs for everyone.
“As the UK’s largest installer of both boilers and heat pumps, we have expertise here. If we make the most of our first-mover advantage, we can deliver a huge boost to growth and prosperity.”
“But if we stand back and are left behind in the global energy transition, we risk paying a very heavy economic price. Being proactive will make the energy transition affordable – dragging our heels means it will be a huge burden.”
Mr Shapps made his comments at an event in Westminster last week, where he suggested the “clean” gas was more likely to be used for heavy industry and transport than for domestic heating.
“There was a time when people thought you will just have something that looks like a gas boiler and we’ll feed hydrogen into it,” he said.
“The problem with that is that you’d have to replace a lot of piping and of course we’ve got to produce the green hydrogen to make the whole thing stack up – at the kind of volumes that would mean the transition would be very slow. So I’m not sure that home heating will be all through hydrogen.”
The comments have caused disquiet within industry. Many investors in the gas supply chain hope their assets can be repurposed for hydrogen.
They have also raised questions about whether the Government plans to proceed with a similar proposed trial in Redcar. A decision on that is expected within the coming months.
Mr Shapps was speaking just days after local opposition prompted the Government to cancel plans for a hydrogen boiler trial in Whitby, near Ellesmere Port. Residents were told that their gas boilers would be replaced with a new hydrogen boiler, or a heat pump if they didn’t want to join the pilot, but many said they didn’t want to choose either option.
James Earl, director of gas for the Energy Networks Association, which represents the UK’s gas network operators, said:
The Government needs to ensure it is being clear – with customers and investors – about its hydrogen policies. Comments and speculation without firm policy commitments leads to greater uncertainty.
“The sector is currently waiting for political decisions on how the hydrogen rollout will work and the time frame for it to occur, and when this roadmap is set, gas network operators and investors are ready to deliver at pace.”
Mike Foster, chief executive of the Energy and Utilities Alliance, said Mr Shapps’ comments were “unhelpful” and would make companies think twice about investment.
A Government spokesman said:
The Energy Secretary said he didn’t think all homes would be heated through hydrogen but highlighted it could play a role in decarbonising heating systems, and we would continue to trial its use.
“We are in discussions over a hydrogen heating village trial in Redcar and construction is under way for a trial in Fife. We will continue to explore the role hydrogen can play in heating homes and make a final decision in 2026 as planned.”
Hydrogen heating revolution feared over before it’s begun
As he set out plans for a green industrial revolution, Boris Johnson once mused about the possibility of households cooking their breakfasts using hydrogen instead of natural gas.
The fuel – which produces no carbon dioxide when burned – would be pumped into millions of homes via the existing gas pipe network, powering stoves and “hydrogen-ready” boilers.
Supporters claim this represents a dream scenario, sparing consumers from having to ditch boilers in favour of more expensive heat pumps while making use of infrastructure already in the ground.
To test their theory, the Government proposed trialling “hydrogen villages” in Whitby, near Ellesmere Port, and Redcar, with companies including British Gas offering residents free boiler upgrades and guaranteed limits on their bills if they took part.
Yet barely a year later, the plan lies in tatters following protests about safety and higher bills, while ministers have notably dialled down their support for using hydrogen domestically.
Earlier this month, Lord Callanan, an energy minister, admitted it was “clear there is no strong local support” in Whitby for a trial, with discussions still ongoing about whether Redcar will still go ahead.
Then just days later, Grant Shapps, the Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary, told journalists that although hydrogen would likely be used in heavy industry, replacing gas with hydrogen in homes no longer looks realistic.
Grant Shapps, the Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary said:
“There was a time when people thought you will just have something that looks like a gas boiler and we’ll feed hydrogen into it.
“The problem with that is that you’d have to replace a lot of piping and of course we’ve got to produce the green hydrogen to make the whole thing stack up – at the kind of volumes that would mean the transition would be very slow.”
His comments have alarmed industry bosses, who now fear the dream of a hydrogen heating revolution may be over before it has begun.
Instead, it looks as though UK policy will focus on replacing gas boilers with heat pumps – despite consumers showing little enthusiasm for them so far – and other solutions such as district heating networks.
Chris O’Shea, the chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica, on Tuesday warned writing off hydrogen prematurely “risks undermining the energy transition and increasing the costs for everyone”.
“As the UK’s largest installer of both boilers and heat pumps, we have expertise here,” he adds.
It comes after some companies have made large bets on hydrogen being part of the UK’s future energy system. Macquarie, the Australian investment bank, jointly acquired the country’s gas transmission network from National Grid for more than £4bn last year, pointing to hydrogen as a potential source of future demand.
Mike Foster, chief executive of the Energy and Utilities Alliance, a lobby group for boiler manufacturers and gas networks, warns that Shapps’ remarks will “send a shock through the industry”.
Mike Foster, chief executive of the Energy and Utilities Alliance said:
Boiler manufacturers who were told to develop hydrogen-ready boilers by the Government will now rightly ask – why bother?
Foster says. “The same goes for gas networks that are doing trial projects.
“Delayed decisions and unscripted, unhelpful and, to put it politely, factually incorrect remarks like this all give the impression that the UK does not actually know what it is doing.”
Debate over how to decarbonise home heating has been raging for years but, as one of the ways in which “net zero” will affect households most directly, politicians have taken a cautious approach.
Though ministers launched a heat pump grant scheme last year, they have been criticised by parliamentary committees for giving less than full-throated support for the technology in public.
In 2021, a long-awaited heat and buildings strategy avoided backing one technology over another. A target for 600,000 heat pump installations per year was set for 2028, while a decision on whether hydrogen would be used for home heating was pencilled in 2026 – after the next general election.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the former chancellor who was business secretary at the time, says the strategy was deliberately kept “technology neutral”.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the former chancellor said:
If you are serious about net zero, you have got to look at all sorts of solutions.
“The heat pumps target is very ambitious – I would even venture to say it is almost impossible to hit – and you have got a huge variety of homes in this country, so the idea that just one technology will satisfy all those heating needs is unrealistic.”
Against that backdrop, the Government proposed its “hydrogen village” trials.
Households in Whitby, near Ellesmere Port, and Redcar were invited to take part in a two-year scheme that would let them replace their current gas boiler with a hydrogen-ready one or – if they did not want to participate – an electric heat pump.
But it quickly became clear that many residents didn’t want to accept either option.
One local fretted they had been “put up like lambs to the slaughter” over potentially higher prices, while others were alarmed by guidance suggesting some homes would need to drill four-inch wide holes in their walls to reduce the risk of explosions.
In that context, some argue the cancellation of the Whitby trial came as no surprise at all.
Clem Cowton, director of external affairs at Octopus Energy, which invested in a heat pump manufacturer last year, said:
I think it was revealing.
“The main appeal of hydrogen boilers – besides the benefit to gas networks of extending the life of their assets – is supposed to be that they are relatively hassle free for consumers to get.”
“In fact, what we’ve seen is that in the real world, residents would have to go through significant upheaval.”
On top of this, she argues hydrogen is inefficient both to transport and as a way of generating heat compared to heat pumps.
Greg Jackson, Cowton’s boss and Octopus’ chief executive, compares it to “flushing the toilet with champagne” and says it will result in higher bills.
This is because making hydrogen from water through the process of electrolysis requires about six times as much electricity as simply using a heat pump to generate the same amount of warmth, says Dr Jan Rosenow, an energy policy researcher and director of European programmes at the Regulatory Assistance Project.
He says a growing number of independent studies – 43 by his latest count – have now concluded that hydrogen has only a small role to play in heating homes because of the constraints.
“It will still be interesting to see what happens with the Redcar hydrogen trial, but there has clearly been a realisation among UK officials that this is going to be a lot harder to do than they first thought,” Rosenow adds.
Octopus also looked at investing in hydrogen heating itself briefly, before deciding against it, Cowton says.
“The more we looked at it, the harder it was to find independent researchers or scientists anywhere who would say hydrogen is a good idea for heating, because the fundamental physics and economics just do not stack up.”
Heat pumps are hardly proving popular either, however. The first year of the Government’s grant scheme saw two thirds of vouchers go unclaimed.
Ministers will now decide whether to press ahead with the hydrogen trial in Redcar in the coming months.
Sarah Williams, deputy chief executive of Wales & West Utilities, a gas network operator which is jointly proposing the Redcar trial, rejects suggestions that recent events bode badly for her industry.
“I don’t think it’s a setback. On Grant Shapps’ comments, I think they’ve been taken out of context,” she explains. “He said he wasn’t sure that home heating will be all through hydrogen – and we agree, it won’t be everywhere.
“We expect it to be maybe around 60pc to 70pc of homes that could be on hydrogen.
“We are all going to have to have something different in our homes. When you look at the challenges with the Whitby trial, I think it’s fair to say residents don’t like to be told that they have to change their heating system – so one of the key things we’ve got on offer here is choice.”
For now, it remains unclear whether hydrogen heating is a serious prospect for Britain – or just another one of Boris Johnson’s pipe dreams.
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Hydrogen heating revolution feared over before it has begun, July 18, 2023
