Net Zero Minister Suggests Ditching Hydrogen Plans to Heat Homes

Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Grant Shapps arrives for a Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, London, on March 15, 2023. Jordan Pettitt/PA Media

Net Zero minister Grant Shapps has suggested that hydrogen will not be used for domestic heating networks, likely signalling a push for heat pumps instead.

Speaking at a press gallery lunch in Parliament on Thursday, Energy Security and Net Zero Grant Shapps said it was “unlikely” such a hydrogen energy system, which was being considered as an alternative to natural gas, would be used in all homes.

Downing Street said “final conclusions” have not been drawn but that it was right for the government to consider “all the options” for people to heat their homes.

“So I’m not sure that home heating will be all through hydrogen, it will have a role to play,” he said.

“I think hydrogen will be used for storing energy, you won’t have to switch off wind farms at night when you don’t need power because you can turn it into hydrogen and use it later, it will be used for heavy industry, in the future it will be used for heavy transport,” Mr. Shapps added.

Undated photo of a heat pump. Octopus Energy/Handout via PA

The new hydrogen industry is seen as key to the UK’s plan to decarbonise all sectors of the economy, a target which has been signed into law, by 2050.

The comments came after a net zero trial for hydrogen heating was called off this week for one of two sites after protests and public resistance from homeowners, with a Minister citing that there is “no strong local support” for the project.

The Department of Energy Security and Net Zero said on Tuesday that a trial will no longer take place in the Whitby area of Ellesmere Port, northwest England.

Residents have been protesting the site since the trial was announced.

Trials had been proposed for Whitby, as well as Redcar in Teesside, that involved around 2,000 homes and was expected to begin in 2025 and last two years, with funding supplied by energy regulator Ofgem.

Heat Pumps

The change in plans will likely mean a push for heat pumps, which are favoured by activists. Heat pumps are part of the government’s strategy to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, with a target of 600,000 installations by 2028.

According to its Future Energy Scenarios report released on Tuesday, National Grid ESO, the UK’s system operator gave a scenario with the highest levels of electrification expected has the highest number of heat pumps—including hybrids— reaching over 23 million installations in homes by 2050.

On Thursday, Alice Harrison, fossil fuels campaign leader at Global Witness, said, “Hydrogen does have a role to play in decarbonising our industry, but it would be a disaster as a source of home heating—it’s explosive, expensive, and it’s much worse for the climate than alternatives like heat pumps.”

However, according to a new report by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, the majority of people will find a heat pump more expensive to run than a new gas boiler.

The think tank stated aims are to challenge “extremely damaging and harmful policies” envisaged by governments to mitigate anthropogenic global warming

The paper’s author, Andrew Montford noted that heat pumps are mostly deployed in countries with very cheap electricity.

He said that in the UK, the electricity/gas price ratio has been increasing for many years, as increasing penetration of renewable energy “makes the grid progressively less efficient.”

Mr. Montford calculated that even taking into account the inefficiencies of gas boilers, the majority of people will find them cheaper to run than an air-source heat pump.

“As renewables make the grid progressively less efficient, heat pumps are becoming steadily less economic. They already make no sense for consumers or for the economy. And they also make no sense as a decarbonisation tool because the heat pump medicine is worse than the global warming disease,” he said.

“People Under the Cosh”

The Energy Secretary also warned he would be aiming to avoid putting “people under the cosh” with the pace at which Net Zero green policies are introduced.

The government has committed to a ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 and a transition to fully zero-emissions vehicles by 2035.

Mr. Shapps said he was “pretty confident we will get there” but added: “The government have to weigh up these difficult decisions between going faster and slower”.

He added: “We understand that we need to get to this. I also understand that we need to do that in a way that does not cause families undue hardship. It can be very nice running an electric car, they’re quick, they’re clean, but we’ve got to see the second-hand market develop, we’ve got to see the prices converge, and there’s every reason why they should.”

“There are many benefits to getting there but I want to make sure we get there in a way that is not putting people under the cosh,” he said.

PA Media contributed to this report.