Twenty three organisations have jointly written to Grant Shapps MP, Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, to question some of the conclusions of a Hydrogen Champion Report, led by Jane Toogood, and ask Shapps to reject one of its recommendations.
The letter authors welcome the report’s call for a clear long-term vision for how and when hydrogen will scale-up, and for a plan for integrated energy infrastructure to deliver an optimal future energy system.
However, the authors take issue with plans to blend hydrogen into the gas grid to “shore up demand”, saying a 20% blend will raise consumer prices for just a 7% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and warn the measure “could risk locking-in hydrogen for domestic heating at the expense of other sectors”.
They also question the Hydrogen Champion’s conclusions on electrification. Far from the claim that heat pumps are not suitable for many properties, they say the government’s own report says there is “no property type or architectural era that is unsuitable for a heat pump”, while a claim that hydrogen would be a cheaper heating route was unsubstantiated.
The letter authors argue that the Secretary of State should ignore the report’s recommendation that hydrogen-ready boilers should be excluded from a market-based mechanism for low carbon heating. They say, “ the report itself recognises that hydrogen ready boilers are unlikely to run fully on hydrogen for decades to come, this recommendation will enable ‘greenwashing’ for fossil fuel boilers and prolong the impacts of heating on carbon emissions and air quality. This undermines the government’s aim with the market-based mechanism in the Energy Bill.”
Read the letter Grant-Shapps-Hydrogen-Champion-Report.docx