the times | Friday April 8 2022 7News
Homes could be heated partly by
hydrogen after a successful trial of
blending it with natural gas in the grid.
More than 650 homes in the village
of Winlaton near Newcastle upon Tyne
last August became the first on the gas
grid to receive hydrogen to burn in
boilers, cookers, hobs and fires.
Northern Gas Networks (NGN),
which is conducting the Ofgem-funded
trial, said that results from the first
seven months had shown that existing
pipes could safely carry a blend of
20 per cent hydrogen and 80 per cent
natural gas.
Hydrogen molecules are far smaller
than methane ones and more can
escape through cracks in pipes but the
trial has so far found no increase in
leaks.
Tim Harwood, who oversees hydro-
gen projects at NGN, said that the
blend could start to be rolled out to
homes from next year, depending on
availability of hydrogen. He said that
Humberside and Teesside were among
the most likely places to get hydrogen
in the grid because it is expected to be
produced there in large volumes for
energy-intensive industries to help cut
their carbon emissions.already being piloted as a way to mini-
mise emissions from gas-fired power
plants in the future, although this is yet
to be shown to be feasible.
The strategy also promises to be
“open-minded” about fracking, with a
review by the British Geological Survey
into the impact of shale gas extraction.
Fracking is backed by some Tory MPs
but has been halted because of environ-
mental and safety fears.hydrogen
The most abundant chemical element
in the universe, hydrogen has long been
an appealing green alternative. The
strategy promises to double hydrogen
production goals to 10GW by 2030
through both “green” methods of
releasing it from water, as well as “blue”
hydrogen extracted from gas.
The strategy sets out goals to develop
business models for production and
storage. Ministers will decide by the
middle of the decade whether hydro-
gen is safe to heat homes, and could
power a third of boilers by 2050.help with bills and energy
efficiency
Sensitive to the charge that the strategy
offers little to households struggling
with steep energy price rises, the docu-
ment opens with a defence of the gov-ernment’s existing £9 billion package of
rebates and loans. Officials insist the
plan was never designed to offer short-
term help but to protect consumers
from the next global price shock.
But one of the biggest omissions from
the strategy is anything new on energy
efficiency, the quickest way to reduce
demand. Last month’s spring statement
cut VAT on home insulation and heat
pumps but the chancellor vetoed any
more spending on immediate home
improvement measures.
Mike Thompson of the Climate
Change Committee said it was “disap-
pointing not to see more on energy effi-
ciency and on supporting households
to make changes that can cut their
energy bills now”.planning
Underpinning the ambitious goals in
the strategy is the assumption that the
planning process can be speeded up
radically. Officials also hope to make
decisions about the balance between
environment and development earlier
in the process to guide local planning
authorities.
Rain Newton-Smith, chief econo-
mist of the CBI, said: “Commitment to
planning reforms and rapid approvals is
what will really make the difference
now.”Analysis
needed “to bring down
the bills themselves”.
“The first step is to
improve efficiency,
reducing the amount of
energy that households
and businesses need,” the
government declared.
Yet the strategy offered
nothing new of substance
on energy efficiency, with
plans for increased
funding for insulation and
home improvements said
to have been vetoed by the
chancellor. “There is a
major missing piece of
this strategy,” Dame
Clare Moriarty, of
Citizens Advice, said.
“Improving the energy
efficiency of homes can
help bring down bills
right now; it means safer,
warmer homes and it
protects people from
future price spikes.”
There was much more
in the strategy aimed at
the longer-term goal of
“reducing our
dependence on imported
oil and gas”. Yet under
pressure from a minority
of Conservatives,
ministers shied away
from approving a
meaningful expansion of
onshore wind, the
technology that is the
cheapest and quickest to
build — and polling
shows to be popular.
Instead, the
government set bold
targets for a huge
expansion of offshorewind, nuclear and
hydrogen that most
experts think look
challenging to achieve.
The climate change
committee described the
plans as “hugely
ambitious”, going further
even than they had
recommended as the
government’s official
climate advisers, and
requiring “delivery at a
scale and pace as yet
unseen”.
A new goal of a fivefold
increase in offshore wind
farms by 2030 is
predicated on ripping up
planning rules to approve
projects in one year
rather than four; even
then there are enormous
logistical challenges in
managing connections to
the grid.
On nuclear there is a
bold 2050 goal under
which the equivalent of
six more Hinkley Point Cs
would be constructed,
with plans for three
projects to be approved
this parliament and next.
Yet a decade ago the
government was aiming
for five new nuclear plants
by 2025; in reality,
financing problems and
construction delays means
Britain is looking at one
by 2026 at the earliest.
The prime minister
declared: “We’ve got the
ambition, the vision.”
Turning them into reality
will be much harder.Laudable ambition
but solid proposals
are sorely lacking
R
ussia’s invasion
of Ukraine has
triggered a
panicked
rethink of
energy policy across
Europe (Emily Gosden
writes). The conflict has
inflated already sky-high
gas prices, precipitating
Britain’s worst cost of
living crisis in decades,
and left countries
scrambling to reduce
their reliance on
imported oil and gas
where supplies are at the
mercy of tyrants such as
President Putin.
Britain’s new energy
security strategy responds
to this crisis with a push
for “greater energy
independence”, and a
refusal to be diverted from
its net-zero ambitions.
“The more cheap, clean
power we generate, the
less exposed we will be to
eye-watering fossil fuel
prices set by global
markets we can’t control,”
Kwasi Kwarteng, the
business secretary, said.
The objectives may be
admirable, but actualproposals appear sorely
lacking. In the near term,
the strategy offers almost
nothing new to ease the
pain for households
struggling with their bills.
In the longer term, it sets
a number of extremely
ambitious targets for
green technologies
without any detailed
plans for achieving them.
Most households have
just seen their bills rise by
54 per cent to average
£1,971 a year; a further
increase to more than
£2,500 a year looms in
October if gas prices stay
high. Ministers have so
far offered a £150 rebate
via council tax for most
households this April and
a £200 bill discount in
October, to be repaid in
future years.
Despite warnings that
many households will be
unable to afford to heat
their homes, the
government offered no
further assistance, saying
it could not “afford merely
to rely on taxpayer
funding to assist with ever
higher bills”. HouseholdsNews
for lower bills under energy plan
Hopes for hydrogen heating
after success of safety trial
Ben Webster Environment Editor what’s needed for future generations
and if it’s going to help the environ-
ment, we are over the moon with it.”
Dr Jan Rosenow, of the Regulatory
Assistance Project (RAP), an environ-
mental think tank, said very high gas
prices meant “green hydrogen” made
using renewable power was much clos-
er than ever before to achieving cost
parity with natural gas.
But he said it would be better to use
available green hydrogen to decarbon-
ise shipping and industries such as
steel-making rather than home heat-
ing.
He said a 20 per cent hydrogen blend
in the gas grid would cut carbon emis-
sions by only 6-7 per cent because of
hydrogen’s lower calorific value.
The RAP argues that electric heat
pumps are a much more efficient way of
decarbonising home heating than
hydrogen.
The government plans to ban gas
boilers from being installed in new
homes built from 2025, and may ban all
sales of gas boilers as early as 2035.
A trial is due to start next year in
Levenmouth, Fife, where about 300
homes will receive 100 per cent hydro-
gen and free new hydrogen boilers and
cookers. Existing appliances are unable
to use pure hydrogen.The government confirmed in the
energy security strategy, published yes-
terday, that it would make a final deci-
sion on blending hydrogen with gas in
the grid by the end of next year.
The strategy also included a doubling
in the target for hydrogen production
capacity to up to 10 gigawatts by 2030,
with at least half made from water via
electrolysis powered by renewable or
nuclear energy.
The vast majority of hydrogen avail-
able at present, including that used in
the Winlaton trial, is made from gas and
contributes to global warming.
Harwood said that rolling out hydro-
gen in the grid would require changes
to billing as hydrogen contained only
about a third of the energy of natural
gas per cubic metre. Winlaton residents
are being compensated for the increase
in volume of gas used due to the blend.
Elizabeth Thompson, 58, who is one
of the Winlaton residents receiving the
hydrogen blend, said that she had
noticed no difference and nor had any
of the 75 elderly people she helps care
for in a sheltered housing complex in
the village.
“A couple of them had thought that
maybe [the hydrogen] could blow up
but they are quite happy now,” she said.
“We’ve got to look to the future andFINNBARR WEBSTER/GETTY IMAGES
Boris Johnson, at
the Hinkley Point
C plant with
Stuart Crooks,
its managing
director, says he
wants to “bring
nuclear home”