Hydrogen is not a “panacea for reaching net zero” with significant infrastructure challenges limiting its use, according to a new report from the Commons Science and Technology Committee.
The Committee found that it is unlikely that the fuel will be practical or economical for mass use in the short and medium term for heating homes or fuelling passenger cars. This is due to the cost, technological and infrastructure challenges, and the “unassailable” market lead held by alternatives.
For example, the transition to electric vehicles is well underway, with November representing the biggest month for battery electric vehicle sales with 29,372 new registrants. To support this, charging infrastructure is being installed up and down the country, with 36,752 operational across the UK already.
A further concern is that hydrogen is still overwhelmingly produced through fossil-fuel-intensive processes. Currently, carbon capture and storage (CCS) has not been deployed at the large scale required to make a material contribution to emissions reduction, largely ruling out blue hydrogen in the short term.
Green hydrogen requires abundant cheap renewable electricity, and while the sector in the UK is growing at pace, given the demand for green electricity its role in producing hydrogen in the short term seems limited.
As such, the Committee warned that it was “unwise” to assume that hydrogen can make a large contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the near term.
“Hydrogen can play an important role in decarbonising the UK’s economy, but it is not a panacea,” said Committee chair Rt Hon Greg Clark MP.
“There are significant infrastructure challenges associated with converting our energy networks to use hydrogen and uncertainty about when low-carbon hydrogen can be produced at scale at an economical cost.”
The government floated the idea that hydrogen could play a widespread role in heating homes from 2026 earlier in December, and is intending to mandate the use of hydrogen-ready boilers in homes from this date.
However, the Committee said it was “unconvinced” hydrogen would be able to fulfil this role by then, although it noted that it could be feasible to blend some hydrogen into natural gas.
Additionally, the hydrogen boiler policy has “overlooked” metering in homes, the report notes. Ofgem is currently unable to say whether smart meters would be suitable for hydrogen, or the cost implications for consumers if they are not suitable.
There are over 24.7 million homes in the UK, with more than 21 million smart meters now rolled out in them. If the SMETS meters can not measure hydrogen, retrofitting them would be exceptionally costly, time consuming and work intensive.
Additionally, research from Cornwall Insight in September suggested that under the UK government’s current plans for hydrogen, fuel bills could increase by 70% to 90% more than gas on average.
But despite these challenges, the Committee did state that hydrogen could grow to be “a big niche” fuel, helping to decarbonise particular sectors and applications. This includes the decarbonisation of industrial clusters, where hydrogen is already produced.
There has been a number of key announcements with regards to these clusters recently, such as the South Wales Industrial Cluster, for which Lightsource BP is developing solar-powered green hydrogen, and a project located on the island of Eday, at the European Marine Energy Centre‘s tidal energy test site, that is set to combine tidal power and vanadium flow batteries to produce continuous green hydrogen.
Beyond this, hydrogen could help to decarbonise parts of the transport system, such as areas of the rail network that are hard to electrify or bus networks that have a local pattern of operations, as well as parts of shipping or aviation.
“But there are important applications for hydrogen in particular industries so it can be, in the words of one witness to our inquiry, ‘a big niche’,” added Clark.
“We welcome the government’s high-level strategy and support of hydrogen trials, but future decisions on the role of hydrogen must increasingly be practical, taking into account what is technically and economically achievable. We call on the government to set out a series of decision points, which would give industry the clarity that it needs.”
Finishing off the report, the Committee has asked the government to outline a series of decision points over the next two months, which set out in practical terms the role of hydrogen in the future energy system.
Covering the period up to 2050, these should include specifying what scientific and technological progress needs to be made at each stage, for example with regards to the deployment of CCS to make blue hydrogen economic, or the level of surplus renewable generation that would support green hydrogen.
The report has been widely welcomed, with Gareth Redmond-King, head of international programme at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit for example, saying: “We can’t drill for hydrogen, nor harness it with panels or turbines. We have to make it. All but a tiny fraction of the world’s hydrogen production currently uses fossil fuels – which is why oil and gas companies are keen to cast it as a catch-all cure for climate change.
“Green hydrogen has a big role to play in our net zero future for stuff with no easy alternatives, like industry, heavy vehicles, and shipping. Less expensive, more efficient clean solutions already exist for things like heating our homes. If we want to cut emissions and bills quickly, evidence points to heat pumps – three to five times more efficient than burning gas, without producing air pollution. Not to mention getting our boilers ready for a gas that in all likelihood won’t even be available during most boilers’ lifetime.”
Current± recently took a look at hydrogen as a “silver bullet”, discussing the sectors where green hydrogen in particular could make a key difference to decarbonisation.