A coalition of 20 organisations led by E3G – including Octopus Energy, the UK Green Building Council, MCS and Nesta – have written to the government concerning the recent Hydrogen Champion Report, led by Jane Toogood.
The letter to Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, says it welcomes the report’s recommendations to scale up the hydrogen economy with a clear, long-term vision, but warns against recommendations concerning blending hydrogen into the gas grid.
The letter states:
Hydrogen will have a critical role to play in reaching net zero, and its development and deployment must be highly strategic to ensure it can add most value. We are therefore concerned by certain points made in the report with regards to the role of hydrogen for heating.
Key points covered include:
- Using grid blending to shore up hydrogen demand creates unfair costs for consumers: A 20% hydrogen blend would increase gas costs by around 16%, while only reducing emissions by 7%, due to inefficiencies in burning hydrogen.
- Delaying investment in heat decarbonisation: Blending could create greenwash as the public is told that “gas has gone green”, when in fact “hydrogen-ready boilers” will continue to burn fossil fuels for decades to come.
- Without a strategic long-term vision for the hydrogen economy, blending could risk locking-in hydrogen for domestic heating at the expense of other sectors. Blending will not encourage strategic deployment of demand-side technologies in sectors like power generation, industrial processes, and aviation, where hydrogen could play a more cost-effective role in meeting net zero.
Read the letter in full here: e3g.org/wp-content/uploads/Grant-Shapps-Hydrogen-Champion-Report.docx.pdf
