A group of eight academics from major British universities have signed an open letter to UK prime minister Rishi Sunak calling for the government to use the “full toolbox” of decarbonised domestic heating options, including hydrogen, in order to keep consumers on board with the country’s net-zero aspirations.
The group cites independent research that finds that UK consumers are more worried about the one-off upfront costs of green home heating than ongoing costs. Heat pumps are currently more expensive to purchase than hydrogen-ready boilers in the UK, but boilers burning green hydrogen would be way more expensive to run than heat pumps, requiring five times more renewable electricity to produce the same amount of heat.
The letter, seen by Hydrogen Insight, urges Sunak to develop policies that support hydrogen boilers, heat pumps (including hybrid ones that can also burn fossil fuels or H2) and heat networks “on a fair playing field that enables us to reduce carbon emissions from heating while empowering the consumer to choose the technology that best suits their needs”.
The UK has enshrined its pledge to reach net zero by 2050, but has made relatively little progress on decarbonising domestic heating, which accounts for around 18% of the country’s emissions — more than any other sector except road transport.
Citing independent research, the group warned that consumers are apprehensive about the lifestyle and “personal autonomy” implications of decarbonising their homes and called on officials to allow consumers a variety of pathways — or risk derailing their commitment to net zero altogether.
“We should not risk alienating the public on this decarbonisation journey which will, for most households, be extremely personal, due to it taking place within the confines of their own home,” the letter reads. “We must all remember that consumers — voters — have a total veto over Net Zero, and if they do not like the technological solutions they are presented with, they will simply not accept them.”
And the letter’s signatories also warned that a lack of trained heat pump installers could squeeze the UK’s ability to upgrade to heat pumps, even if consumers are in favour.
“While some of the gas workforce will be retrained to fit heat pumps, the UK’s workforce of expert gas engineers — who, in 2021 safely installed 1.7 million gas boilers — means that we can be confident that hydrogen or hydrogen-ready boilers will be able to be delivered at the scale required,” the letter said.
UK government advisors at the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), in their independent assessment of the UK’s heat and buildings strategy, have identified a skills shortage in new heat systems, especially among roles that require highly qualified people, such as energy system design engineers, but recommends an accelerated training programme of the existing workforce to tackle it.
A recent review of 32 independent studies into heat decarbonisation found no evidence that hydrogen in domestic heating would provide more cost or environmental benefits than heat pumps or district heating. In fact, it found that hydrogen heating would require five times as much electricity as a heat pump.
But two separate research reports cited by the letter’s signatories, carried out by UK energy regulator Ofgem and innovation agency Nesta, found that for a significant proportion of consumers (45% in the Nesta report), the upfront cost of installing a green heating system was of greater concern than running costs.
Consumers are also concerned about disruption and the need to carry out renovations, according to the Nesta survey of more than 5,000 people.
Hydrogen heating proponents often note that installing a hydrogen boiler would carry significantly lower upfront costs than a heat pump — although utility Octopus Energy has also said it is now carrying out heat pump installations for the same cost as installing a fossil gas boiler — and would minimise the disruption around installation.
Hydrogen boilers can be installed in place of gas boilers, with no further need to upgrade infrastructure within the home — unlike heat pumps which require some outdoor and indoor space, and may also require upgrades to radiators. However, there remain questions over the safety of hydrogen in the home, as well as the cost of upgrades to the gas grid required, which will likely be borne by consumers.
And although there isn’t any evidence in the reports to suggest that consumers are clamouring for a choice or are concerned about “personal autonomy”, both the Nesta and Ofgem surveys found that consumers are concerned about disruption of installation and the aesthetics of a heat pump.
In fact, contrary to being concerned about choice, 34% of consumers in Nesta’s survey also said they did not want to put the effort into researching the different options available.
Ironically, the only instance, so far, of consumers clamouring for choice in green heating has been in Whitby, an area of Ellesmere Port in northwest England, where gas distributor Cadent is pitching for government cash to carry out a “hydrogen village” heating trial and has been lobbying residents to accept H2 boilers in their homes.
A local rebellion against the proposals has been gathering pace, with residents concerned about the safety of H2, disruption to their lives, the source of the hydrogen, and being left to shoulder the potential sky-high running costs of running H2 boilers after the trial is over.
The full list of signatories to the letter below:
- Paul Dodds, professor of energy systems at University College London
- Bartek Glowacki, emeritus professor of energy and materials science at the University of Cambridge
- Nilay Shah, professor of process systems engineering at Imperial College
- Andrew Barron, Sêr Cymru chair of Low Carbon Energy and Environment
- Bahman Amini Horri, senior lecturer in chemical engineering at the University of Surrey
- Vladimir Molkov, professor of fire safety science at Ulster University
- Nixon Sunny, research assistant in the faculty of natural sciences, Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London
UPDATED: to include full list of signatories and links to the research cited by the academics
