'Don’t alienate the public' | Academics line up behind hydrogen in domestic heating in open letter to UK PM
Professors from major universities warn that public support for net zero could wane if residents are not allowed to choose how to decarbonise their homes
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.
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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 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.
Consumers are also concerned about disruption and the need to carry out renovations, according to the Nesta survey of more than 5,000 people.
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.
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
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