We’re not convinced by hydrogen in home heating or passenger vehicles, MPs tell UK government
Influential committee of legislators warns against viewing H2 as a “panacea” to climate change, calling on Rishi Sunak’s administration to prioritise areas where hydrogen will actually be deployed
Hydrogen is not “practically or economically viable” for widespread use in either domestic heating or passenger vehicles in the short or medium term, an influential committee of legislators has told the UK government — calling on them to prioritise support for hydrogen in areas where it has a “genuine prospect” of deployment.
Hydrogen: hype, hope and the hard truths around its role in the energy transition
In addition, passenger vehicles will struggle to overcome the “unassailable lead” established by battery electric vehicles (BEVs), the Select Committee said, adding that hydrogen will play "at most, a small part in decarbonising passenger cars".
Overall, hydrogen can find a “big niche” in decarbonising the UK, the MPs said, especially in industrial and chemical processes, parts of the rail network and some parts of shipping and aviation.
But they warned against viewing hydrogen as a “panacea”, noting that it will most likely play a “specific, limited” role.
And the UK’s continued support for blue hydrogen made with fossil gas and carbon capture and storage (CCS) should be conditional on standard carbon capture rates reaching 95% by 2030 and in excess of 99% “well in advance of 2050”.
“The government should prioritise the use of hydrogen in those sectors where there is a genuine prospect of technical, feasible and economically viable deployment,” the MP’s report read. “The government should work closely with businesses and international partners to set, in the 2020s, a realistic strategy for the adoption and use of hydrogen in these sectors.”
The UK government, which has said it will make a decision in 2026 on whether hydrogen should be used in domestic heating, now has two months to respond to the report.
Dual system?
Trade association Hydrogen UK, which represents gas distribution companies involved in hydrogen among others, continued to bang the drum for hydrogen heating, despite the Select Committee's conclusions.
But Hydrogen UK chief executive Clare Jackson, who said the group wanted to explore all the options available to decarbonise, appeared to accept the report's premise that H2 might not reach all corners of net zero.
"Personally I’m excited by the art of the possible when it comes to hydrogen but I’m also aware that it’s not the answer to everything," she said in a LinkedIn post responding to the report.
Representatives from gas distribution companies, including Cadent and Scottish Gas Networks (SGN), both gave evidence to the Select Committee, as did an an independent expert from the Hydrogen Science Coalition, alongside a host of utilities, regulators, financiers, government advisors and power grid operators.
Proponents of hydrogen heating often point to the steep upfront costs of a heat pump — often in the range of £10,000 ($12,173) — compared to a hydrogen boiler, which is around a fifth of the price. But running a hydrogen boiler could cost around double running a heat pump, according to one academic witness called by the committee.
French utility EDF advocated for a mixed strategy with hydrogen used in certain regions, warning the committee in its testimony that complete electrification of heating would be “challenging in terms of the scale of network and generating capacity which would be required”, especially as UK peak demand is significantly higher than average demand.
Hydrogen project director at National Grid, Anthony Green, also noted that the gas network in the UK currently transports three times the energy of electricity networks.
But among the alarms raised by committee members is the lack of clarity around whether existing smart meters will be compatible with hydrogen — and how much it would cost to replace them if they are not.
Others raised concerns about the risk of parallel hydrogen and electric systems trapping people in fuel poverty, in which just a few people end up paying more for hydrogen fuel and the cost of maintaining its infrastructure — a risk acknowledged by Green.
UPDATED: epithet for independent expert from the Hydrogen Science Coalition, who gave evidence to the Select Committee
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