Asked by
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of
the implications of their decision to cancel the pilot plan for a
‘hydrogen town'.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Energy
Security and Net Zero () (Con)
It is me again, I am afraid.
We have decided not to progress work on a hydrogen town pilot
until after a decision in 2026 on any potential role for hydrogen
in heating. The Government carefully considered the implications
of this decision and the alternative options. Heat pumps and heat
networks will be the primary means of decarbonisation for the
foreseeable future.
(LD)
I start by congratulating the Minister on injecting a modicum of
common sense into the myth that hydrogen could ever be a
meaningful player in home heating. My Question was prompted by a
conversation with the CEO of a heat battery company, who is
having to postpone a decision to build a new factory until the
Government can give a clear signal that the 2026 deadline for the
hydrogen strategy review has gone. Will the Minister take this
opportunity to give him that clarity, so that he and others can
add to the 9% green growth seen last year in an otherwise
stagnant economy?
(Con)
I would be very interested in speaking to the noble Baroness's
contact in heat batteries; I have also met a number of heat
battery manufacturers. For those who have not come across it, it
is a great growth industry in the UK and a fantastic technology.
There is one particularly good company up in Scotland that I
visited recently. I am not sure what extra clarification we could
provide that would help her contact. We have said—indeed, I said
it in my Answer—that heat pumps, heat networks and
electrification will be by far the vast majority of the
decarbonisation of home heating in the UK. If hydrogen plays any
role at all, it will be only a very tiny one.
(Con)
My noble friend just stated that hydrogen is going to play a very
minor role. How is it that, on the continent, hydrogen is playing
an increasing role in the domestic markets there? Is he not aware
that British Gas has done extensive testing, with varying mixes
of hydrogen, and that so far all has gone well with those tests?
Why now are His Majesty's Government kicking hydrogen into the
long grass and telling the British consumer that it is basically
heat pumps or maybe electrification?
(Con)
I hesitate to disagree with the noble Lord, but I think I will on
this occasion. I would be interested to know where on the
continent hydrogen is being rolled out, as he referred to. I am
aware of one or two experimental schemes, but no widescale
rollout. There is no question that it could work
technically—indeed, two homes have been built in Gateshead as an
experiment by Northern Gas Networks that currently are heated by
hydrogen boilers and hydrogen hobs. Technically, it can work,
although there are safety implications that we need to look at.
The question we need to be answering is whether this is an
efficient use of the country's energy resources.
(Lab)
My Lords, the Minister says that hydrogen might play only a minor
role, but does he accept that, in the future, this country is
possibly going to need a strategic reserve of energy to take
account of the times when the wind does not blow and the sun does
not shine, and that hydrogen might play an important part in the
long-duration energy storage that we are going to need in this
country? It could be a vital part of the country's strategic
energy future.
(Con)
The noble Viscount is absolutely right. I am a huge advocate of
hydrogen precisely because of its role in long-term energy
storage in the circumstances that he outlined—when the wind does
not blow and the sun does not shine. We were debating whether it
has a viable use in home heating. I submit that electrification
and heat pumps are a much more efficient way of heating
homes.
(Con)
My Lords, my noble friend seems to have to answer every question
on these matters these days, and he has another one coming. My
understanding is that green hydrogen can be manufactured—all you
need is a wind turbine or two—and stored quite near consumer
markets in cities and towns, and that it is very effective for
trucks and big mobile users but not much use for domestic heating
because you cannot get it through the distribution system. Is
that a correct assessment? If so, does it put the hydrogen issue
in perspective and remind us that we will need a lot more
nuclear, and will have to rely on gas as well, to get anywhere
near net zero?
(Con)
There was a lot in that question. I agree that there are great
potential uses of hydrogen in long-term energy storage, as the
noble Viscount just mentioned, and in the decarbonisation of some
aspects of rail transport and heavy goods vehicles—particularly
for non-road mobile machinery, where there are no real
electrification options, and we have a number of successful
manufacturers in this country. The original premise of the noble
Lord's question is what the best method of home heating is. All
the evidence and reports show that, even if it were technically
possible to pipe hydrogen into domestic homes, electrification is
a much more efficient option.
(LD)
My Lords, the Minister is being very clear, perhaps clearer than
his department has been. However, the fact that there is an
assessment in 2026 still rather muddles things. His message—which
is surely right—that a national hydrogen network is simply not
the answer instead of gas boilers and that we need to encourage
the take-up of heat pumps, on which we are massively behind most
countries in Europe, needs to be clearly put over. At the same
time, as the noble Viscount, the Royal Society and others have
said, the Government should also be taking action on
long-duration energy storage, but they seem not to be.
(Con)
I am sorry to disagree with the noble Baroness, but we are taking
action. We let the first 11 hydrogen electrolytic allocation
contracts in what is called the HAR1 round last year. The HAR2
round for further electrolytic allocation is happening this year.
We have produced business models for the transmission and storage
of hydrogen. I disagree with her that there is no place for a
hydrogen distribution network in the UK. There absolutely is a
case for that —not for home heating but for industrial uses and
some of the uses that the noble Lord mentioned. I disagree with
her on the fundamentals of this. We are putting these things in
place and we are one of the leading nations in Europe on the
production and distribution of hydrogen.
of Leeds (Lab)
My Lords, the Government's previous announcement on the
cancellation of the hydrogen village trial in Redcar stated that
it was delayed because
“the main source of hydrogen supply will not be available”.
With stakeholders and residents raising real concerns about the
Government's plans, for the sake of clarity, will the Minister
inform the House why the decision was taken to postpone the
hydrogen town pilot until after 2026?
(Con)
It was not postponed—it was cancelled. I visited Redcar and met
many of the residents and businesses in the town who were
concerned. The noble Baroness is right that one of the principal
reasons why the trial did not proceed was that the source of
green hydrogen, which would have been produced locally to the
trial, for various commercial reasons did not go ahead. We also
have to take into account public opinion. We always said that
this would depend on public acceptability, and it was
increasingly obvious that many people—though not all—in the trial
area were not prepared for the trial to go ahead.
(Con)
My Lords, I have listened with great care to the responses from
my noble friend the Minister. What are the implications of these
responses for future grid hydrogen blending trials?
(Con)
We have said that blending into the network can still go ahead.
It is possible to put hydrogen into the existing gas mains at up
to about 20% concentration. We have said that this can go ahead,
because it provides an offtake of last resort for the
electrolytic hydrogen producers, so that they have a market for
it. Existing appliances will work perfectly satisfactorily, and
this is a useful first step in rolling out hydrogen production
and distribution across the country for all of the commercial and
industrial uses that I mentioned.
(Lab)
My Lords, in previous Questions the Minister and the Government
have indicated that all strategic decisions on the use of
hydrogen will be taken in 2026. Clearly, the decision on home
heating has already been taken. Does the Minister intend to bring
forward decisions on the strategic use of hydrogen in industrial
and transport applications? If not, are we going to wait another
couple of years and have things dribbled out, rather than take a
strategic approach to the use of hydrogen, which the Government
previously implied would be there in 2026?
(Con)
I am sorry if I have given the noble Lord the wrong impression.
We have already taken strategic decisions on the use of hydrogen.
We are supporting the production of both electrolytic green and
CCUS-enabled blue hydrogen. We are already rolling out the
business models for the delivery of commercial-scale use of
hydrogen, and we are one of the leading nations in Europe on
doing that. The decision in 2026 would be on whether hydrogen has
a role in domestic heating. The noble Lord is getting the issues
confused.
