'We didn’t sign up to be lab rats' | Rebellion brewing against 'futile' hydrogen heating project
Local groups within Cadent’s planned Whitby Hydrogen Village in UK demand public debate and independent advice amid fears about cost and safety
Hydrogen: hype, hope and the hard truths around its role in the energy transition
Locals living in some of the 2,000 homes included in Whitby, an area of the town of Ellesmere Port in northwest England, complain that project developer Cadent Gas has given them insufficient and incomplete information and that as a vested interest it cannot be trusted to give accurate advice.
Opposition to the Whitby project — one of two proposals competing to fulfil the UK government’s pledge to deliver a hydrogen village by 2025 — has so far manifested in a petition and a 700-strong Facebook group, in what is rapidly turning into a PR disaster for Cadent and hydrogen home heating more generally.
High on the list of concerns is that the trial will disrupt residents’ lives and homes for a heating fuel that will ultimately be abandoned, or even worse leave residents shouldering the sky-high running cost of hydrogen boilers.
Cadent has pledged to subsidise the cost of hydrogen during the trial but it has not guaranteed that it will continue to do so afterwards, if the trial is considered a success. And if the trial is not successful, it is far from clear whether the homes will be switched back to fossil gas or left to burn expensive hydrogen.
Whitby resident
The Facebook group is rife with frustration over the lack of information and uncertainty over whether or not hydrogen is the most appropriate fuel for domestic heating.
“It is such a difficult decision for people to make when it hasn’t become clear yet which technology will be settled upon as the accepted best method for the UK climate,” one member of the group posted. “It becomes even more difficult when you are being railroaded into a decision about how you want to heat your home for the next 20-30 years.”
Cadent has said that it will give more information before customers are expected to make a firm decision.
“We are currently working on a solution where customers can keep their own energy supplier and the programme will subside the cost of hydrogen to natural gas prices so customers do not need to pay a penny more for hydrogen than they would do if they were using natural gas in their homes.
“We want to bring people along with our journey and not force them to do anything they do not wish to do.”
Instead, Cadent is offering to install electric equipment, such as air source heat pumps, electric panel radiators and electric ovens and hobs, free of charge.
Some residents are happy with this, Grannell says, but many are fearful of the disruption this will cause and object to not being given an option to stay with natural gas.
“My boiler is less than 12 months old,” one Whitby resident posted in the group. “I don’t want to change it or any of my appliances. Yet a stranger can come into my home and say I have to. I feel bullied into this, as it’s not my decision but a stranger’s decision. What happened to my freedom to choose?”
Cadent has indicated that it will, if necessary, subsidise the cost of electricity if residents switch to electric heating that turns out to be more expensive than natural gas.
"The aim of the trial is to ensure customers are not out of pocket or disadvantaged in any way because of the trial, throughout the trial," a spokesperson for Cadent said.
“This is really worrying me,” posted one resident. “Even if I go electric a neighbour might have chosen hydrogen so my home could still be at risk. We need to keep it out of Whitby.”
“More explosive! Not in my home thank you,” added another resident.
Even more residents are concerned about the effect the hydrogen trials will have on buildings insurance, or on local property values, as well as the use of public funds for the project.
The design stage of the Whitby Hydrogen Village is expected to cost £8.29m ($9.49m), with Cadent meeting 60% of the costs and the UK government contributing £3.36m. By contrast, Northern Gas Networks’, the gas distributor behind the other scheme in the running for the hydrogen village proposal, in Redcar, northeast England, is contributing just 10% of the costs for its £6.64m design.
“This is taxpayers' money to pay huge tests for something that in the long run is not the future,” said Grannell. “This could be going to proper studies into renewable energy. That is the future as opposed to this, [which] seems a bit of a fad.”
“If we knew that this has been proven and we knew it wasn't futile, I think that might be different,” Grannell added.
Fighting for survival
Meanwhile, the local Member of Parliament (MP), Labour’s Justin Madders, is said to be back-tracking on his initial support for the proposal.
Speaking in Parliament in May, Madders expressed his hope that Whitby would be chosen as the UK’s hydrogen village — but only if his constituents could be brought on board.
Whitby resident
“The maximum benefit will be found if we can take the maximum number of people with us,” he said, adding that he believed all residents’ concerns could be dealt with.
But local groups report that Madders had been silent on the matter despite growing disquiet in the area, only meeting with residents last week.
"The village is not a done deal and still needs government approval," he said. "I have always said to both Cadent and the government that it should only go ahead if affected residents support it. Therefore it is important that they engage with the many legitimate questions people have to ensure that as much factual information is put forward as possible and that residents have their concerns addressed."
The confusion comes despite Cadent opening the doors of its “Experience Centre” in Whitby in September, where company representatives answer questions and demonstrate the use of hydrogen appliances.
Grannell, who agrees that some people in Whitby are in favour of the trial, says that many residents are open to the idea of taking part as long as they have accurate information and guarantees they can rely on. The problem is, she says, is that Cadent cannot give unbiased advice.
“The people that we've spoken to in the experience centre, they're just doing their job,” she says. “But the company itself, they’re fighting for their survival in the market, so they’ll do and say anything to try and get that through. They've got big shareholders at the top.”
Grannell has booked speakers from the hydrogen heating-sceptical Hydrogen Science Coalition, including University of Aberdeen engineering lecturer Tom Baxter and chemical engineer and energy consultant Paul Martin, to address a virtual public meeting in Whitby next weekend.
This is despite the fact that Whitby’s proximity to Hynet is one of the reasons the village was selected by Cadent in the first place.
It is not clear what has caused the about-turn, but local unease about relying on fossil fuels for hydrogen — at a time when the UK has just experienced a period of skyrocketing natural gas prices — may well have been a factor.
Cadent Gas
However, the shift to green hydrogen has not yet assuaged all the cost and environmental concerns raised by Whitby residents.
UPDATED: to include Cadent's clarification on subsidising electric heating throughout the trial
UPDATED 7 November: to include quote from Justin Madders, MP
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