Germany’s first hydrogen heating trial is due to begin in a small Bavarian town later this year after local “open-minded hydrogen pioneers” signed contracts for a 100% H2 heat supply.

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Ten households and one local charity in the market town of Hohenwart, 80km north of Munich, will burn green hydrogen in boilers manufactured by Vaillant for at least 18 months “from the 2023/24 heating period”.

The pilot project, named H2Direkt, is primarily research to better understand how existing gas pipelines can be converted to use hydrogen, and is funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research’s TransHyDE H2 infrastructure programme.

But the announcement of the contract signings, released by Thüga, a co-operative network of more than 100 municipal utilities, suggests that hydrogen is the future of the heating of buildings in Germany.

“Our signal to politicians: An efficient heat transition and security of supply are feasible if we use the existing infrastructure for renewable gases,” said Thüga innovation manager Béatrice Angleys.

“There is currently no comparable project in this country. We are creating a blueprint for heat supply throughout Germany."

Alexander Schuh, the head of boilermaker Vaillant’s German hydrogen projects, added: “We are certain that H2 technologies will establish themselves in the building sector in the near future and thus become another mainstay for a climate-neutral heat supply.”

Green hydrogen for the project will be delivered in trucks, with storage tanks feeding into the local gas network from land owned by German disability charity, Regens-Wagner-Stiftung, which will also use hydrogen for heating at its local carpentry shop.

As part of the H2Direkt project, Thüga — together with local energy supplier Energie Südbayern (ESB) and ESB-owned gas distributor Energienetze Bayern — will convert a section of the local gas network to run on 100% hydrogen.

Mathias Stierstorfer, who is leading the project for Energienetze Bayern, said the contracts signed between the customers and ESB were “an important milestone”.

“We are happy that we have found open-minded hydrogen pioneers. Together with us, they demonstrate that a climate-neutral heat supply with hydrogen works in existing gas networks.”

Germany does not see the use of hydrogen boilers in heating as a priority, with its 2020 national H2 strategy stating a preference for fuel cells, which can simultaneously provide heat and power to buildings.

Burning green hydrogen to produce heat is controversial because five to six times more renewable energy would be required to produce the same amount of heat as an electric heat pump.

Only gas distributors, boilermakers and some politicians seem to be interested in the technology, and at least 32 independent studies have concluded that it should not be considered as a large-scale clean heating solution.

Hydrogen boiler heating trials are also in the pipeline in the UK and the Netherlands, although all three British pilot projects involving households — in Whitby, Redcar and Fife — have faced opposition from local residents over safety and cost concerns.