Grant Shapps said hydrogen could play a small role in the future. Credit: Lauren Hurley/DESNZ
Hydrogen will not be used to replace natural gas for home heating, the government said, amid fears it could cause major disruptions
Grant Shapps said the move to low-carbon hydrogen would cause significant disruption to the gas grid and will be too slow for the UK's net zero.
The Minister for Energy said: “There was a time when people thought you had something like a gas boiler and we would supply hydrogen into it.”
< p>“The problem is that hydrogen molecules are very small. You have to replace potentially quite a lot of pipelines.
“And of course you need to produce green hydrogen to make it all add up, but these volumes mean the transition will be quite slow.”
“So I'm not sure if home heating will be entirely hydrogen.”
0409 Hydrogen Proposed
Earlier this week, the government said it would no longer support hydrogen testing in Whitby, Cheshire, after a significant resistance of the inhabitants.
However, Mr Shapps said the government will continue to support the proposed trial at Redcar, Teesside and is expected to make a final decision on using hydrogen for home heating by 2026.
He also said that hydrogen might play a small role.
Mr Shapps said: “I don't believe in telling people, 'Okay, we'll just come to vomit your cauldron to replace it with this other thing you don't want.” It's useless.
“There are other regions in the country that really want to hold a trial. So it's not that we won't test, we will.”
0409 UK Hydrogen Demand Forecast
Low carbon hydrogen can be produced using renewable electricity or fossil gas with capture and storage of emissions.
Only a very small amount is currently produced worldwide and it is expected to be in high demand in heavy industry, shipping and aviation, driving up prices.
Mr Shapps said: “I I think hydrogen will be used for energy storage. We won't have to shut down wind farms at night when you don't need power because you can turn it into hydrogen and then use it later.
“It will be used for heavy industry in the future. It will be used for heavy transport.”
The government has set its sights on producing 10 gigawatts of low-carbon hydrogen by 2030, but has been forced to abandon plans to finance industry development through a levy on household bills after a backlash by the Conservative MPs and their colleagues.
Mr Shapps added: “I strongly believe that hydrogen will be part of our energy mix in the future. And I think the UK has a very big role to play in that. We will make sure we have this hydrogen economy.”
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