Amid mounting opposition from Redcar residents, Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho has made the decision to cancel a controversial trial involving the use of hydrogen for home heating in this Yorkshire coastal town.
Originally planned to involve the replacement of gas central heating in all homes within the trial area, the initiative aimed to introduce either hydrogen boilers or electric alternatives as replacements. However, the cancellation indicates a shift in the planned direction for the trial’s implementation.
But on Thursday the government announced that the trial would no longer be going ahead, casting doubt on the idea of hydrogen ever being used to heat homes in Britain.
A similar trial planned in Whitby in Cheshire was also cancelled earlier this year after residents objected.
Unlike the methane that we burn in our gas boilers, hydrogen doesn’t emit carbon when burned leading some to tout it as a straight-forward swap to how we heat our homes in a net zero future.
The problem is that hydrogen currently needs a large amount of renewable electricity to be created in an environmentally friendly way – using renewable electricity to split hydrogen from water in a process called electrolysis.
Many scientists point out that it is therefore much more efficient to use that green electricity directly to run alternatives like heat pumps.
During an interview earlier this month on Sky’s Climate Show with Tom Heap, energy minister Lord Callanan conveyed an assertion that hydrogen’s role in home heating would not be a significant one. The government, despite this statement, articulated its intent to evaluate data obtained from a hydrogen heating trial in Fife and analogous trials across Europe. A conclusive decision on the matter is slated for 2026.
However, the government’s endorsement of a ban on boilers, including those capable of burning hydrogen, in newly constructed residences in England starting from 2025, coupled with substantial subsidies allocated for heat pumps, suggests a paradigm shift. It appears increasingly probable that heat pumps will emerge as the preferred technology for warming homes in the forthcoming decades, signaling a potential deviation from hydrogen’s envisioned prominence in the home heating landscape.