117 Comments

1. “How hydrogen could help us to reach net zero”

   https://hydeploy.co.uk/about/news/how-hydrogen-could-help-us-to-reach-net-zero/

   “One of the big areas that must be considered in introducing hydrogen to the gas mix is the impact to calorific value (CV). The CV drops when hydrogen is blended in, which means that more gas must be used to get the same amount of energy at the point of use. We have therefore trialled different blends containing different levels of hydrogen to optimise the output without incurring excessive cost, with 20% hydrogen currently coming out as the most favourable option from a lab perspective.”

   So is methane (natural gas) to be replaced 100% by hydrogen or only 20%? If only 20%, what’s the point?

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2. I think a key problem with hydrogen is that we intend to replace a perfectly good system – natural gas boilers – with a system that will be more dangerous, more expensive, and will cause all sorts of upheaval re: digging up existing pipes. In other words the new system has a large heap of disadvantages, and its only advantage is that there are no carbon atoms in the gas.

   If on the other hand the new system was in some way better, then I could see perhaps justifying some of the downsides. When every house had a coal fire, plumbing in gas was clearly an enormous improvement of people’s lives, even if there were attendant risks.

   The release of water vapour is not a problem however, because of rain! If substantial amounts of CO2 snowed on Antarctica then there would probably be no issue with CO2 either (as far as I know this does not happen, even when the temperature drops below the freezing point of CO2 – perhaps the air pressure is too low at the height this could potentially happen).

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3. “Hydrogen
   An Elemental Shift in How We Use Energy”

   https://www.certifhy.ca/index.html

   “~95% of the hydrogen produced in the world today is derived from fossil fuels. So while hydrogen itself is a clean alternative, the fact that most of it comes from fossil fuels makes using this hydrogen counterproductive.

   BUT

   An increasing amount of hydrogen is being generated from clean source (e.g. through water electrolysis using renewable or low-carbon electricity)”

   I can’t help thinking common sense has gone out of the window somewhere along the road.

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4. Here is what an ordinary (coal) gas explosion did at Ronan Points in London in 1968.
   However, hydrogen is much more explosive than coal and/or natural gas. Therefore, will we need to upgrade all of our high-rise buildings to be resistant to hydrogen explosions?

   

   Photo by Derek Voller, CC BY-SA 2.0
   https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59931718

   [Edited to make image appear and give credit — passing admin]

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5. Angusmac, good question. I thought the report had been sensible by assessing the challenge of conversion in respect of a two storey, masonry-built, terraced house with a basement and a loft conversion. Maybe, however, they were avoiding the difficult question of what to do with high-rise buildings? It ain’t going to be easy, that’s for sure.

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6. Maybe the answer to Mediterranean wildfires is to re-introduce the ibex…

   …and maybe lynx to control the ibex?

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7. I find it hard to imagine water vapor from burning hydrogen or any other industrial process having any significant greenhouse gas effect. I’d expect it to just get incorporated into the various hydrological equilibriums, but I suppose I could be missing something.

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8. “Climate: WWF warns UK spending is lagging behind targets”

   https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58170865

   This is the usual propaganda from WWF and Harrabin, but right at the end of the article we get this:

   “Hydrogen warning
   One of the government’s new policy initiatives is to promote hydrogen as a power source. A hydrogen strategy is due soon.

   Lobby groups are pressing for widespread hydrogen use in home heating.

   But a report from Cornell and Stanford Universities warns that using hydrogen could increase emissions overall unless it’s made by electrolysis from surplus wind power.

   That’s because the most common current method of getting hydrogen is to split it from natural gas, which produces high carbon emissions.”

   The report in question can supposedly be found here (the link takes you to a website, not to the article, which you then have to search for, so far as I can see):

   https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/20500505

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9. More on that story in the Guardian:

   “UK plan to replace fossil gas with blue hydrogen ‘may backfire’
   Academics warn ‘fugitive’ emissions from producing hydrogen could be 20% worse for climate than using gas”

   https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/12/uk-replace-fossil-gas-blue-hydrogen-backfire-emissions

   “The government’s plan to replace fossil gas with “blue” hydrogen to help meet its climate targets could backfire after US academics found that it may lead to more emissions than using gas.

   In some cases blue hydrogen, which is made from fossil gas, could be up to 20% worse for the climate than using gas in homes and heavy industry owing to the emissions that escape when gas is extracted from the ground and split to produce hydrogen.

   The process leaves a byproduct of carbon dioxide and methane, which fossil fuel companies plan to trap using carbon capture technology. However, even the most advanced schemes cannot capture all the emissions, leaving some to enter the atmosphere and contribute to global heating.

   Professors from Cornell and Stanford universities calculated that these “fugitive” emissions from producing hydrogen could eclipse those associated with extracting and burning gas when multiplied by the amount of gas required to make an equivalent amount of energy from hydrogen.

   Robert Howarth, a Cornell University professor and co-author of the study, said the research was the first to be published in a peer-reviewed journal to lay bare the “significant lifecycle emissions intensity of blue hydrogen”.

   The paper, which will be published in Energy Science and Engineering, warned that blue hydrogen may be “a distraction” or “something that may delay needed action to truly decarbonise the global energy economy”….”.

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10. Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond:

    “Biden-backed ‘blue’ hydrogen may pollute more than coal, study finds
    Infrastructure bill includes $8bn to develop ‘clean hydrogen’ but study finds large emissions from production of ‘blue’ hydrogen”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/12/clean-fuel-blue-hydrogen-coal-study

    “The large infrastructure bill passed by the US Senate and hailed by Joe Biden as a key tool to tackle the climate crisis includes billions of dollars to support a supposedly clean fuel that is potentially even more polluting than coal, new research has found.

    The $1tn infrastructure package, which passed with bipartisan support on Tuesday, includes $8bn to develop “clean hydrogen” via the creation of four new regional hubs. The White House has said the bill advances Biden’s climate agenda and proponents of hydrogen have touted it as a low-emissions alternative to fuel shipping, trucking, aviation and even home heating.

    But a new study has found surprisingly large emissions from the production of so-called “blue” hydrogen, a variant being enthusiastically pushed by the fossil fuel industry and probably falling under the definition of clean hydrogen in the Senate bill.

    Blue hydrogen involves splitting gas into hydrogen and carbon dioxide and then capturing and storing the CO2 to ensure it doesn’t heat the planet. But this process involves the incidental release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and uses a huge amount of energy to separate and then store the carbon dioxide, some of which escapes anyway.

    This means that the production of this hydrogen actually creates 20% more greenhouse gases than coal, commonly regarded the most polluting fossil fuel, when being burned for heat, and 60% more than burning diesel, according to the new paper, published in the Energy Science & Engineering journal.

    “It’s pretty striking, I was surprised at the results,” said Robert Howarth, a scientist at Cornell University who authored the paper alongside Mark Jacobson, a Stanford University researcher. “Blue hydrogen is a nice marketing term that the oil and gas industry is keen to push but it’s far from carbon free. I don’t think we should be spending our funds this way, on these sort of false solutions.”

    The Hydrogen Council, a group that includes the oil companies BP, Total and Shell among its members, has said that hydrogen has a “key role to play in the global energy transition” by replacing more polluting fuels, predicting it will account for 18% of total energy demand by 2050.

    Dozens of gas companies in the US have started producing hydrogen or testing its viability in existing gas pipelines, which some climate campaigners have said is a step towards entrenching fossil fuel infrastructure at a time when the world, as outlined by Monday’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, needs to rapidly move to net-zero emissions.”

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11. As so often with these schemes, it’s not as easy as it sounds.
    Blending low levels of hydrogen into the natural gas grid should not cause major problems for domestic appliances, aiui (although burners may need regular replacement). However it would cause serious difficulties for gas turbine power plants where the combustion conditions are under very tight tolerances. An HSE report concluded that the hydrogen would have to be removed pre-combustion – assuming that could be done (absorption or membranes maybe?), what happens to the hydrogen then?
    Also the level of blending is unlikely to be uniform across the country and will vary over time (assuming the source is electrolysis powered by “excess” wind generation). That has implications for the maintenance of the calorific value and, maybe, for boiler controls.

    Wrt that article/study decrying blue hydrogen, iirc Howarth, one of the authors, has form as an anti-fracker. Whenever someone bangs the methane drum I wish they could be asked how methane can have much effect outside lab experiments because its absorption spectra are swamped by water vapour which is present at 20,000 times the concentration.

    Speaking of water vapour, burning hydrogen will produce more of it than methane so homes will need better ventilation.

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12. Mike Hig, welcome, and thanks for the comment.

    I’ve been lurking at BH and observed the hydrogen discussion there, but I’m a bit busy here these days. 🙂

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13. Mark/Mike: Prof Jacobson has also been frequently on the sceptics’ radar. His most famous achievement is raising science to a new gold standard by suing someone who disagreed with him. After that hot flush he pulled the suit but was ordered to pay costs for his trouble:
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/07/11/stanford-prof-ordered-to-pay-legal-fees-after-dropping-10-million-defamation-case-against-another-scientist/

    The paper in question showed that the US could live without hydrocarbons. The below quote was from the National Review in earlier WUWT coverage:

    Rather than accept any of the criticisms Clack and his nearly two dozen co-authors made, Jacobson responded with tirades on Twitter, EcoWatch, and elsewhere. He claimed that his work doesn’t contain a single error, that all of his critics are whores for hydrocarbons, and that, well, dammit, he’s right. Never mind that Jacobson overstated the amount of available hydropower in the U.S. by roughly a factor of ten and claimed that in just three decades or so, we won’t need any gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel because we will all be flying to Vegas in hydrogen-powered 737s.

    One would suspect that Jacobson would be likely to favour electrolysis over steam reforming.

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14. Politico is repeating the story, it seems:

    “EU’s clean hydrogen plan raises dirty doubts
    Methane leaks from non-renewable hydrogen could pollute more than coal and natural gas.”

    https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-clean-hydrogen-plan-doubts/

    “The EU’s hopes of powering its green energy transformation with clean-burning hydrogen could potentially speed up global warming instead, scientists warn.

    A study published Thursday shows that making hydrogen out of natural gas — even when capturing some of the escaping CO2 emissions to make what’s known as “blue hydrogen” — is more polluting than simply burning natural gas directly.

    “The use of blue hydrogen appears difficult to justify on climate grounds,” the study said.

    That’s a problem for the EU. Its Hydrogen Strategy foresees ramping up production of blue hydrogen over the next decade to displace natural gas and also to use in hard-to-electrify sectors like heavy transport and steel and cement production. It’s also banking on cleaner but more expensive green hydrogen, made from water and renewable electricity, eventually becoming available in larger quantities.

    The vast majority of hydrogen produced in the EU is so-called grey hydrogen, made by splitting natural gas into hydrogen and carbon dioxide and allowing the CO2 to escape into the atmosphere. It’s relatively cheap, but has a massive carbon footprint.

    Blue hydrogen is a bit cleaner, but the process requires a great deal of energy, and that’s supplied by burning natural gas, according to Robert Horwath, professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University and co-author of the study published in Energy Science & Engineering.

    Even more energy has to be used to capture the CO2 and “that electricity’s also coming from burning more natural gas without capturing the emissions,” he said….”.

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15. “Oil firms made ‘false claims’ on blue hydrogen costs, says ex-lobby boss
    Chris Jackson believes companies promoted ‘unsustainable’ fossil gas projects to access billions in taxpayer subsidies”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/20/oil-firms-made-false-claims-on-blue-hydrogen-costs-says-ex-lobby-boss

    “Oil companies have used false claims over the cost of producing fossil fuel hydrogen to win over the Treasury and access billions in taxpayer subsidies, according to the outgoing hydrogen lobby boss.

    Chris Jackson quit as the chair of a leading hydrogen industry association earlier this week ahead of a government strategy paper featuring support for “blue hydrogen”, which is derived from fossil gas and produces carbon emissions.

    He told the Guardian he could no longer lead an industry association that includes oil companies backing blue hydrogen projects, because the schemes are “not sustainable” and “make no sense at all”.”

    Sound familiar?

    “The UK’s future blue hydrogen projects include plans for BP to develop a hydrogen plant in Teesside, and Norwegian state oil company Equinor and SSE to build the world’s biggest hydrogen production plant with carbon capture and storage technology near Hull.”

    That would be SSE that receives subsidies to build wind turbines all over Scotland?

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16. And Equinor, remember, is the co-owner of Dudgeon, and is familiar with the right end of the money hose. BP is investing in offshore wind. The aim of these companies is to become renewables companies because they believe that our gov’t and others will either ban oil or tax it to death, but that the flow of money for renewables will never be interrupted.

    The bottom line is that however the hydrogen is made, it will have to be subsidised heavily. (Alternatively, it might be possible to tax natural gas to death or simply ban it, but first the boiler switch would have to be made.)

    Hydrogen, being worse in every way than natural gas, is never going to displace it without a large helping hand.

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17. https://www.rechargenews.com/energy-transition/uk-backs-hydrogen-cfds-to-repeat-offshore-wind-success-story/2-1-1052884

    “UK backs hydrogen CfDs to repeat offshore wind success story”

    The government is proposing using a replica of the CfD scheme that has helped build-out capacity of offshore wind in the UK to more than 10GW while also lowering its cost over the past decade by offering guaranteed ‘strike prices’ for power produced.

    The government said the publication of the document, three months ahead of the UN’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, sent out a “strong signal globally” that the UK is to committed to building a thriving hydrogen economy that could deliver hundreds of thousands of green jobs.

    Happened on this while looking for something else. Presumably new green farm machinery could deliver hundreds of thousands of green jobs too. (The return of oversized horses.) The obvious point is that the number of jobs only goes up if a more efficient process is displaced, via gov’t mandate, by a less efficient one.

    The success story referred to is the success of slyly sucking money out of the pockets of people who can’t afford it into the pockets of people who are already rolling in it and with whom in many cases we have very little in common w.r.t. freedom, democracy, old fashioned things like that.

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18. “Carbon from UK’s blue hydrogen bid still to equal 1m petrol cars
    Government’s plan to use ‘blue’ fossil-fuel hydrogen alongside green version raises concern, say campaigners”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/22/uk-switch-to-hydrogen-power-must-not-rely-on-fossil-fuels-warn-campaigners

    “Opting for hydrogen that is made using fossil fuels rather than renewable electricity could create up to 8m tonnes of carbon emissions every year by 2050, according to an analysis of government data.

    The figures show that the use of fossil-fuel hydrogen, or “blue hydrogen”, would create the same carbon emissions each year that more than a million petrol cars would produce, compared with using zero-carbon “green hydrogen”.

    Ministers plan to use both blue and green hydrogen to replace fossil gas in factories, refineries and heating, but new figures show that an over-reliance on blue hydrogen would still lead to millions of tonnes of carbon emissions entering the atmosphere every year.

    Blue hydrogen is extracted from fossil gas in a process that requires carbon capture technology to trap emissions – but this method still fails to capture between 5% and 15% of the CO2. Carbon emissions are also released when the fossil gas is extracted from oil and gas fields.

    Using blue hydrogen exclusively to replace fossil gas would result in between 6m and 8m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year from the late 2020s, or the equivalent of running an average of 1.5m more fossil-fuel cars on the road every year by 2050.”

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19. “Hydrogen: UK government sees future in low-carbon fuel – but what’s the reality?”

    https://theconversation.com/hydrogen-uk-government-sees-future-in-low-carbon-fuel-but-whats-the-reality-166244

    “…Then there are influential groups lobbying parliament on behalf of hydrogen, such as the Hydrogen Taskforce, which represents members with a vested interest in the fuel who are set to receive a significant amount of business from this strategy. But is what is good for business good for UK consumers and taxpayers?

    The UK government has failed to provide comparative evidence that hydrogen is a preferred net-zero route in many applications. Only by comparing the paths to net zero in a way that considers the complete life cycle of hydrogen fuel, quantifying the impacts on people, profit and the environment can the case for hydrogen be made accurately. That evidence is lacking in this strategy.”

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20. In Pandora’s Box, the name Lord Callanan cropped up. Here he is again:

    “Hydrogen boiler revolution ‘pretty much impossible’, says minister
    Lord Martin Callanan cast doubt on the feasibility of production demands and overall cost”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/05/hydrogen-boiler-revolution-pretty-much-impossible-says-minister/

    “Using hydrogen to replace natural gas as a green alternative in boilers is “pretty much impossible”, a minister has admitted, despite the Government planning major trials over the coming decade….

    …Describing himself as a “little bit of a hydrogen sceptic”, Lord Callanan said: “If I’m being honest the idea that we could produce enough hydrogen at reasonable cost to displace mains gas is pretty much impossible.

    “Technology might get us there, there might be some scientific breakthrough. But it’s more likely that it will end up being used by trains and HGVs, for some industrial processes, rather than for home heating.
    “But the official policy is we will see how the market develops and take a view in the mid-part of this decade as to whether it will play a significant role in the home.”…

    ,,,Lord Callanan acknowledged that moving to green heating in homes is “one of the biggest political challenges that we are faced with as a government.”

    “It doesn’t get that much publicity, but it’s something that will cost us an enormous amount of money over the next 15 to 20 years.”

    Lord Callanan said plans to raise the cost of gas would be “nigh on impossible politically” amid the current energy price crunch.

    But he said it would be necessary to rebalance social and green levies, which are currently around 20 per cent of electricity bills and mean running a heat pump is more expensive than running a gas boiler.

    “To persuade people to make the change, we have to provide them with the right incentives. But it’s a difficult policy challenge. Thankfully one for the Treasury and not me,” he said.

    The Government is expected to announce a consultation on rebalancing the levies, with possible options being to move them onto gas or into general taxation.”

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21. hydrogen sceptic one moment … unmentionable sceptic the next?

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22. Cross-pasting a comment on NALOPKT:
    From a report by Jacobs ( Hydrogen supply chain eveidence base; Nov 2018) on the various aspects of adopting hydrogen:

    “Efficiency:The expectation is that H 2 boilers can achieve high efficiencies, similar to those of current natural gas boilers. This would only be confirmed during the required research and development phase of commercialisation.

    Higher burning temperature can lead to NOx formation – performance may be influenced by the NOx specification (low NOx requirements could push down efficiency and may require an exhaust catalyst).

    Lifetime and maintenance: H 2 boilers are expected to achieve 10 15 year target lifetimes (i.e. similar to current natural gas boilers)
    There may be some additional service requirements, hence O&M costs are expected to be higher. Catalytic components (if required) would need to be replaced within 15 year lifetime
    Regular servicing of the appliance may need to be mandatory if components such as exhaust catalysts are needed to ensure performance of the unit is maintained.”

    So, without mitigation via exhaust catalysts, hydrogen boilers will add to NOx pollution. Fitting catalysts will increase costs and maintenance requirements, and efficiency will be lower.
    The report also includes some fairly hair-raising numbers on costs.
    It really is not a happy story.

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23. “JCB signs green hydrogen deal worth billions”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59107805

    “Construction equipment maker JCB has signed a deal to buy billions of pounds of green hydrogen, defined as hydrogen produced using renewable energy.

    The deal means JCB will take 10% of the green hydrogen made by mining company Fortescue Future Industries (FFI).

    Australian company FFI said the deal was a “first-of-a-kind partnership” that would see it become the UK’s largest supplier of the clean fuel.

    Production, mostly done outside the UK, is expected to begin early next year.

    JCB and a firm called Ryze Hydrogen would then distribute it in the UK.”

    Quite apart from all the other issues, it’s not exactly green if production is mostly to be outside the UK, for a gas which is to be distributed within the UK.

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24. “Whitelee green hydrogen facility receives £9.4m investment”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-59365823

    “A wind farm is to become home to a state-of-the-art hydrogen storage facility which could eventually produce enough clean energy to help power the next generation of public transport.

    The UK government has awarded the project, based at Whitelee Windfarm in East Renfrewshire, £9.4m.

    It said the project would help Glasgow reach net zero by 2030.

    The cash will go towards developing the country’s largest electrolyser, which converts water in to hydrogen.

    The hydrogen produced can be easily stored and transported to where it is needed.

    Splitting water and capturing the released hydrogen requires energy, and the project will use electricity produced from the wind farm, the largest onshore farm in the UK, to create the gas…

    …The partnership, made up of ScottishPower, ITM Power and BOC, is currently going through the planning process for the new facility and aims to have green hydrogen available to the commercial market by 2023….”

    Scottish Power, of course, isn’t Scottish at all, but is owned by Spanish company, Iberdrola. BOC is now part of the Linde Group, which is German. So much of this “£9.4M investment” (why doesn’t the BBC headline call it what it is – a taxpayer-funded subsidy?) will probably leach away abroad.

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25. “Will hydrogen energy help decarbonise the economy?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59384415

    More interesting and thoughtful than usual from the BBC, IMO, and worth a read. It concludes with this:

    “Under the SGN/Wood plan, the rest of Scotland’s gas network could be converted to hydrogen only 15 years later than the Aberdeen target, in 2045. Wood throws in an extended pipeline network to gather in carbon dioxide from around the country for treatment and storage.

    The total cost, at today’s prices: £11.6bn. Of that more than £3.4bn is in continued and expanded blue hydrogen generation, and £2.6bn would be required for the green variety, most of that for electrolysis.

    Some £1.1bn would prepare the SGN pipeline network for hydrogen, while £500m would buy a gathering network for carbon.

    A further £3.3bn would pay for conversion of appliances in homes and business premises.

    No-one said it was going to be cheap. But it could bring quality jobs and business opportunities.

    It’s just one set of ideas, while the alternative – of doing nothing to decarbonise energy use across the economy – isn’t a long-term, cheap solution either.”

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26. “Climate change: Is ‘blue hydrogen’ Japan’s answer to coal?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-59525480

    “It’s a glorious autumn afternoon and I’m standing on a hillside looking out over Tokyo Bay. Beside me is Takao Saiki, a usually mild-mannered gentleman in his 70s.

    But today Saiki-San is angry.

    “It’s a total joke,” he says, in perfect English. “Just ridiculous!”

    The cause of his distress is a giant construction site blocking our view across the bay – a 1.3-gigawatt coal-fired power station in the making.

    “I don’t understand why we still have to burn coal to generate electricity,” says Saiki-San’s friend, Rikuro Suzuki. “This plant alone will emit more than seven million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year!”

    Suzuki-San’s point is a good one. Shouldn’t Japan be cutting its coal consumption, not increasing it, at a time of great concern about coal’s impact on the climate?

    So why the coal? The answer is the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

    In 2010 about one third of Japan’s electricity came from nuclear power, and there were plans to build a lot more. But then the 2011 disaster hit, and all Japan’s nuclear power plants were shut down. Ten years later most remain closed – and there is a lot of resistance to restarting them.

    In their place Japan’s gas-fired power stations have been doing a lot of overtime. But, as Britain has found out recently, natural gas is expensive.So, the Japanese government decided to build 22 new coal-fired power stations, to run on cheap coal imported from Australia. Economically it made sense. Environmentally, not so much. Japan is now under intense pressure to stop using coal.

    Instead of closing the old coal plants and switching to renewables, Japan’s answer is to switch to burning hydrogen or ammonia….

    …This brings us to the final, and most important question. Where is the hydrogen to power Japan zero carbon society going to come from?

    The answer is “blue hydrogen”.

    Make hydrogen from water using renewable energy and you get “green hydrogen”. The problem is green hydrogen is really expensive.

    Instead, today most hydrogen is made from natural gas, or even coal. That is cheap but it produces lots of greenhouse gases. However, if you capture those greenhouse gases and bury them in the ground, you are allowed to call it “blue hydrogen”.

    This is exactly what Japan says it is going to do.

    Earlier this year, Japan and Australia opened a joint project in the state of Victoria to turn a type of coal called lignite, or brown coal, into hydrogen. The hydrogen is then liquified to minus 253C, then piped into a specially built ship which carries it to Japan.

    What happens to the greenhouse gases produced at the site? Right now, they go straight up into the atmosphere. But Japan and Australia are promising that, at some point in the future, they will begin capturing the greenhouse gas produced at the Latrobe Valley site and inject it into the sea floor off the coast.

    Climate change campaigners are horrified by this plan. They say the technology to capture and store greenhouse gases is unproven and it will lock Japan into digging up vast quantities of brown coal for decades to come….”.

    A long article, probably worth a read. But with the usual caveats when reading anything about climate change on the BBC. What the BBC omits to mention is that ” Takao Saiki, a usually mild-mannered gentleman in his 70s” is a climate change, anti-coal campaigner:

    Click to access Statement-of-opinion-Takao-Saiki.pdf

    Where’s the BBC Climate Misinformation Correspondents when you need them?

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27. Dr John Constable at the House of Lords’ industry and regulators committee on 14 September 2021. Dr John Constable directs the UK information charity, Renewable Energy Foundation: 

    I have written extensively on hydrogen, and I have what I think is a rational approach to it. Hydrogen is an energy carrier. It is an interesting energy carrier, but it is a difficult gas. It is both fugitive and quite dangerous to handle. However, it is genuinely interesting and could allow us to decarbonise some very difficult areas such as transport, particularly international shipping, as ammonia.

    The key thing is to make the production of hydrogen cheap. That is important for the consumer of the hydrogen but also because making it safe to use in society will not be a cheap activity in itself. It is going to be expensive to make it safe, so the input costs have to be very low. Therefore, the most promising route for hydrogen production is high-temperature nuclear. This was sketched in the 1970s by the physicist and economist Marchetti, known for Marchetti cycles in energy, and was offered to the Japanese. The Japanese government accepted it and are still working on it. It exists within the Japanese machinery as the new Sunshine project.

    It is promising. Will it work? We do not know. It is crucial that the input energy cost is low. Electrolysis from existing nuclear power stations will produce high-cost hydrogen. Electrolysis from renewable energy will produce very high-cost hydrogen. High-temperature nuclear reactors decomposing water thermally, probably in the presence of a catalyst, would in principle produce low-cost hydrogen and might therefore work. If the hydrogen could be low-cost, it would be possible to afford all the safety measures that would be necessary to render it utilisable both in vehicles and in the home. I am open-minded about it and guardedly optimistic.

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28. Very interesting Bill. The parliamentlive video is here. John is styled as the “Energy Editor, Global Warming Policy Forum” by the committee here.

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29. I did watch all of that video of John Constable yesterday. Very impressive grasp of the detail, clear articulation of the problems with all of energy policy and stoic patience with some of the ‘slower’ committee members.

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30. On 27th April 2022, there will be another WEET conference, this one headed “Growing the hydrogen economy in the UK –
    Policy and market development, commercialisation and scaling up, and readying infrastructure”.

    Speakers include:

    Antony Green, Hydrogen Director, Gas Transmission, National Grid
    James Richardson, Chief Economist, National Infrastructure Commission
    Dr Jenifer Baxter, Protium Green;
    Dr Sarah Deasley, Frontier Economics;
    Jayne Harrold, PWC;
    Dr Robert Howarth, Cornell University;
    Katharine Palmer, Shipping Lead, High level Climate Champion, UNFCCC;
    Professor Nilay Shah, Imperial College London;
    Chris Train, Green Gas Champion, Energy Networks Association;
    Dr Tiancun Xiao, University of Oxford

    We are told:

    “The conference will also be an opportunity to discuss a number of key measures due to be released in early 2022 to support deployment and investment including a Hydrogen Sector Development Action Plan; the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund; a UK standard for low carbon hydrogen; and the Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply 2 competition.

    Overall, the agenda is structured to bring out the latest thinking on:
    the Hydrogen Strategy – support for R&D and commercialisation, integration into the energy mix, role in decarbonisation plans, and achieving the sector’s economic potential
    implementation – developing production, distribution, storage and use, plus business models, strategic planning, scaling up, and addressing the fossil fuels cost gap
    market and regulatory frameworks – as well as relationships with the wider energy system
    partnerships and growth – collaboration to support innovation, and development of international hydrogen markets and export opportunities”.

    We are also told that relevant developments include:

    UK Hydrogen Strategy – with government ambitions for hydrogen as part of the policy drive to net-zero, rollout ambitions, hydrogen economy development, global positioning, and tracking progress
    consultation and support – Consultation on a UK Low Carbon Hydrogen Standard; Designing the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund – Consultation; and Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply 2 Competition
    wider policy – the Sixth Carbon Budget; Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener and The Energy White Paper with specific attention paid to hydrogen, including targets, investment and implemenation
    the UK in international partnerships – including The Clean Hydrogen Mission; Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM); and International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy (IPHE)
    · further developments:
    Glasgow to be home to first-of-a-kind hydrogen storage project – under the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio
    Government-backed liquid hydrogen plane paves way for zero emission flight – The Aerospace Technology Institute FlyZero project

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31. “Dorset’s green hydrogen project secures £6.5m funding”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-60066866

    “A hydrogen fuel project is set to be up and running in Dorset later this year after securing£6.5m of funding.

    Dorset Green H2 is being built at White’s Pitt – a former landfill site off Magna Road in Poole.

    Electricity from solar panels and existing landfill gases will be fed into an electrolyser with water to make green hydrogen – a zero-emission fuel.

    It will be the first of its kind in the region, according to its operator Canford Renewable Energy.

    The hydrogen fuel will be compressed, stored, and sold for use as a carbon-free fuel.

    It is expected to produce enough hydrogen each year to fuel the equivalent of 900,000 miles travelled by lorries.

    It is being funded with £3m from Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)’s Growing Places Fund loan scheme, a £1.5m grant from Low Carbon Dorset, along with a £1.7m bank loan and equity funding from Canford Renewable Energy.”

    Value for money, or a green pie-in-the-sky DeLorean?

    LikeLike

32. I read that as “Dorset Green HS2”. It just seemed to deserve that vibe.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

33. “Many people still in the dark over gas boilers, say MPs”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60235709

    “Many people in Britain remain unprepared for the revolution in home heating that the country faces in the next ten to 15 years, a report from MPs has said.

    MPs on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee said the government’s approach to decarbonising home heating lacked clear direction.

    Current policies are also not on the scale required, they said.

    However, the report rejected hydrogen as a solution for greener home heating.”

    So, no hydrogen after all? Does that mean we’re wasting a load of money on all the hydrogen experimentation? On top of this:

    “…”In total, we’re investing £6.6bn this parliament to decarbonise our buildings, saving people money on their bills and slashing pollution in the process,” a BEIS spokesperson said….

    …BEIS said the government’s existing plans would incentivise people to install low-carbon heating systems “in a simple, fair and cheap way” and included £5,000 grants for heat pumps…”.

    But back to hydrogen:

    “However, the cross-party committee poured cold water on suggestions that hydrogen could play a major role in home heating.

    Mr Jones told BBC News: “We were not convinced that hydrogen was proven to be a front-running, viable technology.

    “I understand why trades unions are enthusiastic about hydrogen because it preserves jobs – but many workers will need to transition to heat pumps.

    Concerns around hydrogen included “supply, distribution, changes to the network, changes in the home with safety work around pipes and valves – so many reasons we’re not convinced,” he said.

    Mr Jones’ comments were attacked by Mike Foster from the trade body Energy and Utilities Alliance.

    “Comments in the report [about hydrogen] are factually untrue and others deliberately misinterpret government plans,” Mr Foster said.

    Another industry lobby group, Electrify Heat, said it was clear that heat pumps would provide heat for most homes and that hydrogen would have a very small role.”

    Dear, oh dear, oh dear. Rushing down the net zero road, but with no idea where it is going. Except that it’s going to cost the taxpayer a lot of money, and some people are making a lot of money out of it.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

34. “Aberdeen’s hydrogen buses taken off the road due to technical issue”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-60266199

    “Aberdeen’s fleet of hydrogen buses has been taken off the road due to a “technical issue”.

    The buses were introduced in January last year as part of a project aimed at zero emissions and low noise travel.

    First Bus said an issue had been identified with the 15 hydrogen buses and the vehicles had been taken off service until the technical issue could be “better understood”.

    Replacement buses are being brought in until it is resolved.”

    Diesel, presumably?

    LikeLike

35. “The neighbourhood leading a green energy revolution”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60241966

    “An ambitious target of using hydrogen to partly power homes in the UK within three years has been set by the National Grid, the BBC has learned. On the east coast of Scotland, a small neighbourhood is playing a key role in this energy revolution.

    From next year, about 300 homes in Buckhaven, and Methil, in the area of Levenmouth, will be powered by green hydrogen gas in a project called H100. Customers will be offered free hydrogen-ready boilers and cookers in the scheme, which will initially last five and a half years.

    For the first time in its history, the National Grid (NG) plans to use something other than natural gas in its distribution network and start blending hydrogen with natural gas in the next three years.

    Yet, standing in the former Fife coal mining village of Buckhaven as a cold wind howls round buildings made of local grey stone, it’s hard to imagine this is the centre of a groundbreaking experiment working towards the NG’s ambitions.

    But as soon as you walk towards Buckhaven waterfront, it’s impossible to ignore. A 200-metre wind turbine, astonishing in its size and generating green energy, stands just off the coast, making a loud swoosh every couple of seconds, as the wind is picked up and thrown into the sea.

    The region has a long, proud history of energy production from its mines, but now the focus is on more environmentally friendly natural resources.

    The huge wind turbine will generate electricity to power an electrolyser, which turns water into hydrogen gas and oxygen. The hydrogen will then be stored in pressurised secure tanks, before being pumped into people’s homes.

    The £28m project, partly funded by the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM), has the capability to be expanded to 1,000 homes from the same turbine.”

    Huge wind turbine – environmentally friendly. Hmmm.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

36. As for:

    “For the first time in its history, the National Grid (NG) plans to use something other than natural gas in its distribution network and start blending hydrogen with natural gas in the next three years.”

    What about this?

    “HyDeploy Winlaton”

    https://hydeploy.co.uk/winlaton/

    “Following the first HyDeploy project which successfully blended hydrogen into a natural gas network at Keele University, the second phase of HyDeploy at Winlaton, near Gateshead is now live.

    Winlaton, which comprises 668 homes, a church, primary school and several small businesses is playing an important part in the future of hydrogen use, by being the first community to receive a hydrogen blend via a first public network.

    Blending started in August 2021 and will last around 10 months, with up to 20% hydrogen supplied in the gas supply.”

    LikeLike

37. Wait a minute!

    https://www.allposters.com/-sp/Wait-a-minute-We-re-lemurs-Lemurs-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Posters_i9170187_.htm

    LikeLike

38. “Aberdeen’s hydrogen buses returning to service after technical issue”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-61161763

    “Aberdeen’s fleet of hydrogen buses is gradually returning to service after being taken off the road more than two months ago due to a “technical issue”.

    First Bus said in February that an issue had been identified with the 15 buses and the vehicles had been taken off service until the problem could be better understood.

    Replacement buses were instead brought in.

    First said two had now returned to service and others would follow.

    The buses were introduced in January last year as part of a project aimed at zero emissions and low-noise travel.

    First said in a statement: “We are pleased to confirm two of our zero-emissions hydrogen buses have returned to service in Aberdeen.

    “It is expected the number of hydrogen buses in service will continue to increase gradually over the coming weeks as we return our fleet to its full complement.””

    That’s going well, then! Bear in mind the cost:

    “The green and white-liveried buses, built by the Wrightbus company in Northern Ireland, cost £500,000 ($658,000, 555,000 euros) each.

    They complement Aberdeen’s existing fleet of hydrogen- and electric-powered council vans and road sweepers, said Bell.

    The city hopes the £8.3-million project, part-funded by the Scottish Government and the European Union, will help to develop a hydrogen industry in the region as demand grows.”

    https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-aberdeen-trials-hydrogen-buses.html

    LikeLike

39. “Green air travel possible – Cranfield University professor”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-61524740

    “Airports can be green and air travel could be cheaper eventually, but first a high level of investment is needed, a scientist has told the BBC.

    Prof Pericles Pilidis, of Cranfield University in Bedfordshire, said new hydrogen-powered airliners could be a reality within 10 years.

    He claimed expanding airports could also be greener in the long term….

    …Prof Pilidis, head of Cranfield’s Power and Propulsion Department, said zero-carbon hydrogen-powered aircraft would stop air travel damaging the environment….

    …”There is going to be a high transition cost – but in the longer term green aviation could be cheaper than the air travel we have at the moment.”…”

    High transition costs, eh? Looks like high costs all round. For all of it. All of the net zero stuff.

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40. From the BBC’s rolling coverage of the war in Ukraine, at 7.13 today:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-61546571

    “Could hydrogen ease Germany’s reliance on Russian gas?

    “The war in Ukraine has upended Germany’s energy policy.

    The nation currently buys around 25% of its oil and 40% of its gas from Russia, contributing billions of euros a year to Moscow’s finances.

    Germany is moving “as fast as possible” to end that relationship, but it will take time, the country’s finance minister recently said.

    To help achieve that goal, Veronika Grimm – an economics professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg – wants Germany to “ramp up” its use of hydrogen.

    Hydrogen can store vast amounts of energy, replace natural gas in industrial processes, and power fuel cells in trucks, trains, ships or planes that emit nothing but water vapour.

    Ms Grimm’s enthusiasm is gaining traction, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), an energy research group, dozens of countries have published national hydrogen strategies, or are about to.

    Despite this flurry of interest, it’s not clear yet that the large-scale use of hydrogen can be made viable.”

    Link then provided to a bigger article:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61406077

    It includes this:

    “Green hydrogen is produced by using electricity from renewable power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen molecules using an electrolyser. But those machines and the electricity to run them remain costly.

    These costs means that, at the moment, such emission-free hydrogen makes up only 0.03% of global hydrogen production, according to the IEA.”

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41. “Essex firm’s hydrogen lorry on show in Stoneleigh”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-61996738

    “A lorry that can run off hydrogen has been unveiled to the public.

    Tevva, the maker in Tilbury, Essex, says it is the first hydrogen fuel cell-supported truck to be designed, built and mass produced in the UK.

    The company adds the vehicle has a range of up to 310 miles (500 km) via the tech, with hydrogen tanks able to be refilled in 10 minutes.

    It says it wants to help the transport industry adapt to a “post-fossil fuel future”.

    To that end, it developed a fuel cell to top up electric battery-powered trucks, giving them a longer range while reducing the size of the electric battery needed.

    The company – which has displayed the vehicle at the Road Transport Expo in Stoneleigh, Warwickshire – said hydrogen had been used safely in buses and other vehicles in 20 countries over a number of years.”

    As for “up to 310 miles”, Tevva’s own website says this:

    “Range on ANY EV is not constant, but 275kWh provides at least 450km range on the majority of days and at least 300km in the most adverse of conditions.”

    https://www.tevva.com/

    Still, if we have to go down this road, then it would be nice if some British jobs were created to replace all those that we have exported to China:

    “Tevva is a British electric and hydrogen truck pioneer. Tevva designs and manufactures zero-emission medium-duty trucks with a revolutionary combination of battery electric and hydrogen fuel-cell range extender technology.

    Tevva trucks are built to revitalize urban freight and logistics – optimising range, cost, driver experience, and environmental impact. Tevva trucks are already on the road and have accrued hundreds of thousands of miles in customer hands.

    Tevva London is based in Tilbury, Essex – we also have a base in the Midlands at Mira Technology Park.”

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42. Worryingly, the fixation with hydrogen isn’t going away. A further WEET conference with the title “Developing the hydrogen economy in Scotland” is to be held on 15th September.

    ” It will be a timely opportunity to assess next steps and what will be needed if The Scottish Government’s hydrogen ambitions, as established in the Hydrogen Policy Statement, are to be achieved – including for building 5GW installed hydrogen production capacity by 2030, and becoming Europe’s cheapest producer of hydrogen by 2045.

    Delegates will also discuss wider developments across the sector, including the:
    – draft Hydrogen Action Plan
    – UK Hydrogen Strategy
    – Hydrogen Business Model and Net Zero Hydrogen Fund: market engagement on electrolytic allocation consultation

    Bringing together stakeholders and policymakers, areas for discussion include:

    role of hydrogen – future energy mix – potential for Scotland’s hydrogen economy – commercialisation
    renewable, low-carbon power – infrastructure, policy and regulatory framework
    policy priorities – domestic and international collaboration – delivering a just transition – funding
    regional production hubs and renewable projects – Hydrogen Innovation Fund – innovation – efficiency – local government
    barriers to use – network preparation and integration into the energy system – research ecosystem – uptake in carbon-intensive sectors – maximising opportunities for growth “

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43. “ScottishPower to build £150m green hydrogen plant at Port of Felixstowe
    Exclusive: plant at Suffolk port is slated to produce 100megawatts of power from 2026”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/08/scottishpower-build-150m-green-hydrogen-plant-port-felixstowe

    “ScottishPower is planning to build a £150m green hydrogen plant at the Port of Felixstowe to power trains, trucks and ships, the Guardian can reveal.

    The energy company has drawn up proposals for a 100megawatt plant at the Suffolk port which will provide enough fuel to power 1300 hydrogen trucks from 2026.

    The company, owned by €63bn Spanish utilities giant Iberdrola, said demand for the green fuel had stepped up since petrol and diesel prices began to soar last year, emboldening the firm to invest.

    It has submitted an application to the government’s Net Zero Hydrogen Fund, which provides state backing to develop low-carbon hydrogen projects for the next three years. ScottishPower estimated the whole project could cost between £100m and £150m.”

    Of course, the crucial piece of missing information is how much of the £150M cost will end up being paid for by the UK taxpayer. Here we are, according to the Guardian (and I am inclined to agree) in the midst of an energy crisis and a cost-of-living crisis, yet there never seems to be a shortage of taxpayer money to give away to foreign energy companies for projects with no guarantee of success and which (certainly in the short term, and probably in the long term) will do nothing to improve the UK’s energy security or costs.

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44. “Could hydrogen ease Germany’s reliance on Russian gas?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61406077

    “…Veronika Grimm is an economics professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and currently one of Germany’s three special advisors to the federal government, called Economic Sages.

    “We need to diversify and decarbonise our energy sources faster than initially planned,” she says. To help achieve that goal, Ms Grimm wants the nation to “ramp-up” its use of hydrogen….”

    BUT:

    “…Despite this flurry of interest, it’s not clear yet that the large-scale use of hydrogen can be made viable.

    After all, there has been similar excitement before: in the 1970s, after two oil crises, and in the 1990s, when climate worries arose. But both petered out. So, is today’s hype any different?

    Sceptics warn that industry representatives, who globally dominate most hydrogen councils, are often biased in favour of hydrogen as it promises subsidies and keeps up demand for existing assets such as pipelines, tankers, turbines or boilers.

    They also argue that politicians like big, green-sounding plans for a more distant future rather than more difficult solutions.

    While small amounts of hydrogen are being extracted directly from the ground, most hydrogen is manufactured. That is largely done in two ways, each marked by a colour code.

    Green hydrogen is produced by using electricity from renewable power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen molecules using an electrolyser. But those machines and the electricity to run them remain costly.

    These costs means that, at the moment, such emission-free hydrogen makes up only 0.03% of global hydrogen production, according to the IEA….”.

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45. “Green hydrogen could counter energy crisis, says British firm
    ITM Power, which makes electrolyser machines, says splitting water using renewable energy has become more cost-effective than gas”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/14/green-hydrogen-could-counter-energy-crisis-says-british-firm

    Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they? Especially given this context:

    …However, widening losses and the departure of the company’s longstanding chief executive, Graham Cooley, spooked investors, with shares in ITM falling 26% in early trading on Wednesday….
    …ITM, which is listed on London’s AIM exchange, posted revenues of £5.6m for 2022, up from £4.3m a year earlier. However, pre-tax losses widened from £27.6m to £46.7m. Last November, the company raised £250m to expand its manufacturing capacity. Cooley, who has led the company for 13 years, will remain in post until a successor is found….

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46. It’s nice to read a reasonably balanced appraisal in the Guardian:

    “‘World-first’ hydrogen project raises questions about its role in fuelling future homes
    Project to power 300 Scottish homes with ‘green hydrogen’ hit by delays, leaving some to question whether it is still worthwhile”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/20/world-first-hydrogen-project-raises-questions-about-its-role-in-fuelling-future-homes

    On the northern shores of the Firth of Forth, royal blue waters lap against the weathered walls of Methil Docks. The quays were once a hub for coal exports but, since the late 1970s, haven’t dealt in the black stuff. Now, the town on Scotland’s east coast is flirting with another era in the energy industry – but it doesn’t appear to be going to plan.

    In what has been dubbed a “world-first project”, called H100, about 300 homes in Methil and neighbouring Buckhaven in Levenmouth were planned to be powered by “green hydrogen” gas from next year. Customers are offered free hydrogen-ready boilers and cookers under the scheme, scheduled to last at least four years.

    In the £32m project, National Grid will use something other than natural gas in its distribution network for the first time in what is claimed will be the world’s first 100% hydrogen network for consumers. H100 hopes to address the need for alternative energy sources to gas, not least as heating accounts for about 37% of all UK carbon emissions.

    However, the project has been hit by delays – including to the construction of a flagship “demonstration facility”. Some now openly question whether it is a worthwhile undertaking and whether hydrogen will play a significant part in fuelling the homes of the future….

    And quite a lot more – a fairly lengthy, but interesting, read, IMO.

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47. I’ll leave this here, though I could just as appropriately have commented about it against “The True Cost of Net Zero”:

    “Barrow factory to be powered by £40 million hydrogen scheme”

    https://cumbriacrack.com/2022/08/31/barrow-factory-to-be-powered-by-40-million-hydrogen-scheme/

    Taxpayer’s money, as always, is needed:

    A Barrow manufacturer will take advantage of a new £40 million hydrogen scheme.

    Kimberley-Clark, which makes products including Andrex, Kleenex and Huggies, has signed an agreement with Carlton Power, which is behind the Barrow Green Hydrogen scheme.

    The partnership will support the scheme’s development and reduce Kimberly-Clark’s reliance on natural gas as part of its global decarbonisation strategy.

    The Barrow Green Hydrogen scheme, the first of its kind in Cumbria, was announced earlier this month.

    Carlton Power is leading the development in partnership with a regional public/private sector consortium – Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership, Barrow Borough Council, Cadent Gas and Electricity North-West….

    …It needs to secure financial support from the Government via its Hydrogen Investment Package, a multi-million-pound programme to encourage the growth of the hydrogen economy in the UK.

    Kimberly-Clark and Carlton Power will work together to obtain grant funding and operational financial support from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. A submission will be made within the next three months….

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48. Gosh, sneezing will become greener. Not a pleasant thought.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

49. “Study contradicts Rees-Mogg over hydrogen for heating”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63050910

    A new study has cast doubt on government claims that hydrogen could be used to heat homes and so cut greenhouse gas emissions.

    The report, published in the journal Joule, analysed more than 30 studies that looked at hydrogen and heating.

    All those studies found that hydrogen was much less efficient and more costly than alternatives like heat pumps

    Last week the Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg told the Commons that hydrogen was a “silver bullet”….

    …”Using hydrogen for heating may sound attractive at first glance,” says Jan Rosenow the report’s author and Europe Director at the energy think-tank the Regulatory Assistance Project.

    “However, all of the independent research on this topic comes to the same conclusion: heating with hydrogen is a lot less efficient and more expensive than alternatives such as heat pumps, district heating and solar thermal,” he said….

    Or, as he might have said, we could just leave our existing gas infrastructure in place – it would be a lot cheaper.

    …”In the UK, heating homes with green hydrogen would use approximately six times more renewable electricity than heat pumps,” says David Cebon of the Hydrogen Science Coalition and Professor of Mechanical Engineering in Cambridge University.

    “We do not have the time or resources to waste further investigating hydrogen’s role in home heating, especially when the well-known laws of thermodynamics determine the answer,” he said.

    The report said there was a risk that discussion of hydrogen for heating in the future led to a delay in the deployment of clean heating technologies that are already available today.

    Oh dear, well what about these BBC reports noted above?

    “Climate: WWF warns UK spending is lagging behind targets
    By Roger Harrabin
    BBC environment analyst”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58170865

    …One of the government’s new policy initiatives is to promote hydrogen as a power source. A hydrogen strategy is due soon.

    Lobby groups are pressing for widespread hydrogen use in home heating….

    “The neighbourhood leading a green energy revolution”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60241966

    An ambitious target of using hydrogen to partly power homes in the UK within three years has been set by the National Grid, the BBC has learned. On the east coast of Scotland, a small neighbourhood is playing a key role in this energy revolution.

    From next year, about 300 homes in Buckhaven, and Methil, in the area of Levenmouth, will be powered by green hydrogen gas in a project called H100. Customers will be offered free hydrogen-ready boilers and cookers in the scheme, which will initially last five and a half years….

    Oh dear, has an awful lot of public money been wasted (again)? And are those lobby groups (unnamed, I notice) wrong?

    LikeLike

50. The Guardian report is perhaps more detailed and interesting:

    “Hydrogen is unsuitable for home heating, review concludes
    Too many technical difficulties to overcome to make it a viable low-carbon heating fuel, say researchers”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/27/hydrogen-is-unsuitable-for-home-heating-review-concludes

    Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent
    Tue 27 Sep 2022 16.00 BST
    Hydrogen is unsuitable for use in home heating, and likely to remain so, despite the hopes of the UK government and plumbing industry, a comprehensive review of scientific papers has concluded.

    Hydrogen lobbyists are out in force at the Labour party conference this week, sponsoring several events in Liverpool, and will be plentiful at the Conservative party conference that begins this weekend.

    They are hoping to persuade the UK government to push ahead with a mooted large-scale rollout of hydrogen for home heating, as a replacement for the gas used to heat the vast majority of British homes. Hydrogen proponents say it would avoid households having to replace gas boilers with heat pumps, the other main contender for low-carbon home heating.

    But researchers reviewed 32 studies of hydrogen and concluded that it was unlikely to play a major role in home heating, either as a full replacement for fossil fuel gas heating, or as a blend with natural gas.

    Jan Rosenow, Europe director at the Regulatory Assistance Project, an energy thinktank, and co-author of the study, said there were too many technical difficulties to overcome to make hydrogen a viable and economic low-carbon heating fuel.

    “Using hydrogen for heating may sound attractive at first glance. However, all of the independent research on this topic comes to the same conclusion: heating with hydrogen is a lot less efficient and more expensive than alternatives such as heat pumps, district heating and solar thermal,” he said.

    The study, published on Tuesday in the peer-review scientific journal Joule, is the third major blow in the past week to proponents of hydrogen for home heating. Earlier this week, a separate study by the analyst company Cornwall Insight concluded that hydrogen would be close to twice as expensive for home heating as using gas alone. Last week, the Guardian revealed problems with a hydrogen pilot project in Scotland.

    Rosenow told the Guardian hydrogen was not the alternative to heat pumps that lobbyists were claiming. “For policymakers, hydrogen for heating appears attractive because it seems easy: just replace fossil gas with hydrogen with no impact on households. The reality is that significant technical alterations are needed including the pipework in homes and that it will cost people a lot of money to keep warm.”

    Michael Liebreich, the founder of Bloomberg New Energy Finance and chairman of Liebreich Associates, said: “This is a timely paper, showing that no serious analysis has hydrogen playing more than a marginal role in the future of space heating. We need to get Europe’s heating systems off natural gas, and we need to do it without further delay. It’s time to stop the fight: the judges are unanimous and the winners are district heating, heat pumps and electrification.”…

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51. “The great hydrogen gamble: hot air or net zero’s holy grail?
    An army of lobbyists is trying to persuade the government of the case for the combustible gas as a valuable weapon in the climate crisis, but questions remain”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/15/the-great-hydrogen-gamble-hot-air-or-net-zeros-holy-grail

    tanding in front of a lime green doubledecker hydrogen bus, Jo Bamford posed for a photo alongside transport secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan at the Conservative party conference’s “hydrogen zone” in Birmingham.

    A week earlier the JCB heir’s team was busy with photocalls featuring Labour heavyweights Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband at the Labour conference in Liverpool.

    The political offensive was emblematic of the Bamford dynasty’s close political ties and the hydrogen industry’s eagerness to foster goodwill in Westminster. Companies including Cadent, National Grid, Centrica and boiler maker Worcester Bosch joined Bamford’s companies Ryze Hydrogen and Wrightbus in trying to convince Labour and Conservative MPs that hydrogen, the emissionless, highly combustible gas, can be a valuable weapon in the fight against the climate crisis….

    …Since Jo Bamford bought bankrupt London bus maker Wrightbus in 2019, the grandson of JCB founder Joseph Cyril Bamford has bet big on hydrogen. It has won several taxpayer-funded contracts for green transport, including an £11.2m deal to develop hydrogen fuel cell technology in Northern Ireland. Last year, he launched HyCap, a £1bn investment fund designed to back hydrogen specialists from producers to fuelling stations and transport firms.

    Bamford is far from alone in cultivating cordial relations with the government. There are at least 120 paid lobbyists for hydrogen operating in parliament at present, according to estimates from the MCS Charitable Foundation. In the EU, a vast network of fossil fuel companies, trade associations and other interested parties are putting the case for hydrogen.

    Their goals are disparate, from gaining support and subsidies for decarbonising energy-intensive industries to convincing authorities to switch to heating homes with hydrogen boilers. Hydrogen is seen as a transition fuel to a future powered by renewables such as wind and solar, allowing existing gas pipes to be used to pump the gas.

    But the march of the hydrogen lobby has thrown up many questions – how much will it all cost, are there more affordable ways of getting to net zero, and are vested interests such as the oil industry simply trying to stave off extinction?

    “Green” hydrogen is produced by splitting water using electricity from renewables, with minimal emissions. However, detractors argue that creating green hydrogen for home heating is six times less energy efficient than using heat pumps powered by electricity. Meanwhile, “blue” methods to produce the gas from fossil fuels require the carbon dioxide released to be captured and stored to prevent emissions. However, this relies on the success of the unproven carbon-capture and storage industry, which is in its infancy. …

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52. “detractors argue that creating green hydrogen for home heating is six times less energy efficient than using heat pumps powered by electricity”
    wonder where x6 statement comes from? anyway what about –

    “A heat pump works a bit like a refrigerator in reverse; instead of keeping your food cool, it’s warming your home using a refrigerant, which can evaporate into gas and condense into liquid.
    The source of heat – air outside or warmth from the ground – is blown or pumped over the heat exchange surface of the exterior part of the heat pump.
    This heat (although cold in comparison to a centrally-heated home) is warm enough to cause the special refrigerant liquid to evaporate and turn into a gas.
    This gas then moves through a compressor, which increases the pressure and so causes its temperature to rise.The gas (now heated) is passed over the internal heat exchange surface. This heat can then be either blown around the interior or transferred into a central heating or hot water system.
    The gas falls in temperature as the heat is transferred into the home and it subsequently returns to a liquid state.
    The cycle of reverse refrigeration repeats until your home or business reaches the required temperature setting on your thermostat.
    As the ground and air outside always contain some warmth, a heat pump can supply heat to a house even when it’s cold outside. For heat pumps to work at their best, it’s also important that good energy efficiency is installed in the home, such as effective insulation.”

    no thanks, winters in the UK can be very cold.

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53. “Go big or go green? The EU’s massively expanding hydrogen bet
    Brussels is pumping ever-increasing amounts of cash into hydrogen projects, and dragging its feet on climate standards for the gas.”

    https://www.politico.eu/article/go-big-or-go-green-the-eus-massively-expanding-hydrogen-bet/

    Two back-to-back crises have pushed Europe to bet increasing amounts of cash on a hydrogen revolution to meet industrial ambitions and reduce carbon emissions. But its promise to keep its economy growing while meeting 2050 climate targets looks increasingly tenuous.

    For the hydrogen industry, it’s a subsidy boom. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is promising a €3 billion investment vehicle, dubbed a hydrogen bank, to “help guarantee the purchase of hydrogen” by spurring demand using cash from the EU Innovation Fund.

    That comes on top of more than €13 billion in state aid approvals for national and cross-border projects so far: €5.4 billion for Hy2Tech, a cross-border initiative to perfect the technology; €5.2 billion for Hy2Use, aimed at applications in hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as steel, cement and glass; more than €2 billion for German projects in steel, chemicals and production abroad; €220 million for a Spanish plant, and €194 million for a Romanian plant.

    Two more cross-border state aid hydrogen schemes — dubbed Important Projects of Common European Interest — are also in the works, to focus on infrastructure and mobility, though amounts have yet to be released….

    …Before May 2020, there was no such thing as a standalone EU hydrogen strategy. Hydrogen was mentioned only as a complement to rolling out renewable energy and better power grid connections in the Commission’s Green Deal plans.

    Only when the coronavirus crisis threatened to derail those green dreams in early 2020, did the Commission move swiftly to prioritize hydrogen, according to Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, CEO of industry lobby Hydrogen Europe.

    “The crisis broke out, there was a pressure on policymakers to deliver right away, to mobilize the funds needed for a green recovery,” he recalled. “We were very, very fast in reacting to what the Commission needed … we came back to them in May with a concrete plan.”

    That industry road map called for 40 gigawatts (GW) of electrolytic capacity to be built across the EU by 2030, to use renewable electricity to jolt hydrogen out of water. A further 40 GW of production capacity would also be built abroad with the hydrogen then imported by the EU.

    Those plans had a €430 billion price tag over a decade….

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54. As the Tories imposed on us their third PM this year, what is the point of this activity today of all days?

    Picked a good day to be in No10! A pleasure to speak about @CadentGasLtd Hydrogen Ten Point plan. A really solid and wide-ranging discussion about hydrogen’s role in industry, transport, heating, and energy security. #energy #hydrogen pic.twitter.com/6wkmrfkNtT

    — Richard Walsh (@RickyWalsh1973) October 24, 2022

    LikeLike

55. Still the WEET conferences keep coming. On 31st January 2023, there is to be a conference with the heading “Next steps for the UK hydrogen industry – Policy and regulation, business models, sector development, infrastructure and supply chain, and competitive positioning”

    Among other things it mentions is this (which I confess I previously knew nothing about):

    “Hydrogen Business Model and Net Zero Hydrogen Fund: Electrolytic Allocation Round 2022”

    So I took a look:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hydrogen-business-model-and-net-zero-hydrogen-fund-electrolytic-allocation-round-2022

    Guess what?

    Hydrogen will play a vital role in delivering the UK’s commitment to reach net zero by 2050.

    The UK is aiming to develop up to 10GW of low carbon hydrogen generation by 2030, subject to affordability and value for money (VfM), with the intention that at least half of this will be from electrolytic hydrogen, drawing on the scale up of UK offshore wind, other renewables, and new nuclear.

    The Energy Security Strategy set out our ambition to support up to 1GW of electrolytic hydrogen being in construction or operational by 2025. We aim to run yearly electrolytic allocation rounds for the Hydrogen Business Model (HBM) and move to price-competitive allocations by 2025 as soon as market conditions and legislation allow.

    This guidance details our proposed approach for the first joint Hydrogen Business Model and Net Zero Hydrogen Fund allocation round. We hope to support at least 250MW via the first allocation round, although we retain the right to allocate less if we do not see sufficient projects coming forward that meet our eligibility criteria and present VfM to government.

    For the 2022 HBM / NZHF Electrolytic Allocation Round, we propose that projects can apply for HBM revenue support only, or they can apply for joint HBM revenue support and CAPEX support through the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund (NZHF).

    Something else for “net zero” that sees the Government’s hand in the taxpayer’s pocket.

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56. “‘We’ve got no choice’: locals fear life as lab rats in UK hydrogen heating pilot
    In Whitby, just outside Ellesmere Port, residents wait to hear whether their village will be chosen”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/21/no-choice-hydrogen-heating-pilot-whitby-ellesmere-port-lab-rats

    On the site of an old leisure centre, a U-shaped trio of temporary offices sit alongside a neat lawn and fledgling shrubs. Named the “hydrogen experience centre”, this unassuming place is at the heart of a testy tussle that could have implications for how homes across the country are heated.

    The site, in the village of Whitby, just outside Ellesmere Port on the south bank of the Mersey, could become the UK’s first “hydrogen village”. It is being analysed, along with Redcar in the north-east, for potential conversion to 100% hydrogen heating, using the existing gas network and new appliances to update up to 2,000 properties…

    …A decision on whether to use hydrogen in the gas network at a wider scale is due in 2026. It will come a year after a ban on gas boilers in new homes comes into force in 2025, although uncertainty remains over the timeframe for the phase-out of natural gas in existing homes.

    However, there are concerns about the practicality of using hydrogen and the resulting cost to residents. Some people fear they are at risk of becoming unwilling “lab rats” for a technology that never takes off…

    …The proposal for Whitby to become a hydrogen test site – which is being presented by Cheshire West and Chester council, Cadent and British Gas – would give residents the choice of hydrogen or electric alternatives. The cost of new appliances and installation would be covered and the hydrogen would be subsidised to cost the same as natural gas for two years.

    But those who opt out of the hydrogen trial would not be able to stay on gas. Cadent has said it would consider subsidising their electricity – which is typically more expensive than using gas – but it is yet to commit to this. At the end of the pilot, if the decision is made to revert to natural gas, Cadent will cover the costs.

    “We’re being forced to take either hydrogen or an electric alternative if the pilot proceeds. There is no choice not to be part of it,” says John Roach, a retired housing manager who has been convening residents to debate the project.

    “My main concerns are financial: they’re subsidising the hydrogen for two years, but not beyond that. Local boiler engineers have told us they’re not going to bother getting trained up for a small area. So boiler and appliance maintenance and repair is going to be more expensive or hard to find. We’ll be trapped. If we’re the only game in town, how easy will it be to get a replacement?”

    Kate Grannell, another resident, says: “No one is questioning that we need to move away from natural gas but what many of us are saying is, experts know that hydrogen is not the long-term replacement for home heating. I will not be letting the emperor sell me his new clothes.”…

    LikeLike

57. “Rolls-Royce tests a jet engine running on hydrogen”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63758937

    …This is the first time a modern aircraft engine has ever been run on hydrogen.

    Devoid of bodywork, with its intricate wiring and pipework exposed, it sits securely fastened to a sturdy test rig, while engineers cluster around an array of screens in the control room, a safe distance away.

    The tests are being carried out by Rolls-Royce, after development work in Derby and in partnership with the airline easyJet….

    Keep reading…

    …The advantage of hydrogen over batteries is that it provides much more power per kilogram. Batteries are simply too heavy to power larger planes.

    Yet hydrogen aviation remains a very long way off. The tests carried out so far have simply shown that a jet engine using hydrogen can be started up and run at low speed.

    But to go from there to building a wholly new engine, capable of powering a passenger aircraft safely will take a great deal more research – and significant investment.

    The aircraft themselves will also need to be redesigned. Hydrogen, even in liquid form, takes up about four times as much space as the kerosene required to fly the same distance.

    To make it into a liquid in the first place, it needs to be cooled to -253C. Then, before being burned, it must be turned back into a gas.

    “There’s a big change from the aircraft point of view,” says Alan Newby at Rolls-Royce.

    “They’re going to have to have a tank containing the hydrogen. You’ve got to keep it at this really, really cold temperature.

    “Then there’s the issue of how you feed it through to the engine as well.”

    The other key question is where the hydrogen itself comes from, because that will have a dramatic impact on the environmental benefits it can provide…

    Or we could just carry on using technology that has been proved to work?

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58. “Toyota in £11.3m government deal to develop hydrogen pickup trucks”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-63827102

    The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is investing £5.6m in the research scheme, based at Burnaston, with a further £5.7m coming through the Advance Propulsion Centre UK (APC) – an industry body which supports work to decarbonise transport.

    Who are APC? Their website is somewhat opaque in this regard:

    https://www.apcuk.co.uk/our-story/

    Formed in 2013 to help the automotive industry meet the challenges of decarbonisation identified by the Automotive Council.

    Our unique relationship with the automotive industry, and the political and academic landscape means collaboratively we drive the right commercial and strategic outcomes for the benefit of the UK. Our bridging position, between the industry and the innovation means we can influence up and down the ecosystem taking a science superpower to an industrial superpower.

    I can’t establish it for sure, but my money is on at least some of its funding coming from UK taxpayers.

    Meanwhile:

    “Glasgow firm awarded £30m to develop clean hydrogen HGV”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-63826874

    A Scottish-led project to develop a hydrogen fuel cell-powered heavy goods vehicle has been awarded £30m from a government and industry initiative.

    Glasgow-based HVS aims to develop a “clean and affordable” cab and tractor unit to replace equivalent diesel-powered vehicles currently used across the UK and Europe.

    The funding is coming from the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) programme.

    It supports the development of low and zero-carbon automotive technology.

    HVS is among five companies taking a share of a £73m pot raised between the UK government and the automobile industry to develop clean transport technology.

    HVS will receive a £15m grant from the government, with a further £15m coming from industry.

    So APC (whoever they are) are busy with largesse just now (and/or there’s a PR-push on the go). I suppose I could have posted against the True Cost of Net Zero – there’s loads of money sloshing around in speculative “green” ventures. I wonder if we’ll ever be advised as to the outcome of the trials?

    LikeLike

59. “Fife hydrogen trial short on sign ups despite offering £1k ‘bribe’”

    https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23167404.fife-hydrogen-trial-short-sign-ups-despite-offering-1k-bribe/

    A ‘world-first’ trial of hydrogen heating systems in Fife is yet to sign up its targeted number of local households despite offering residents a £1,000 ‘bribe’ to take part.

    SGN – which manages Scotland’s gas networks – is aiming to sign up 300 households in Levenmouth to take part in the H100 project. H100 is set to trial the use of hydrogen as a greener alternative to natural gas to heat homes in the area.

    One of the project’s main aims is to prove “customer acceptance, interest and appetite for hydrogen heat” ahead of a UK government decision on whether to invest in the technology in 2026.

    But SGN has revealed that since registration opened in November last year, “over 250 households” have signed up for the trial. The company is still short of its 300 household target despite offering residents £1,000, free hydrogen appliances and promising them that their heating bills will remain the same as with gas.

    Before the money was first offered to residents in August, the project had signed up just 50 homes, according to SGN….

    …Politicians and campaigners who are sceptical about the use of hydrogen for home heating are unconvinced.

    They argued that the current failure to meet the target showed Fife residents “share their scepticism” even when SGN is “bribing” them. …

    LikeLike

60. must be great to have money to throw at these schemes.

    LikeLike

61. Speaking of throwing money at “green” schemes (that might not even work):

    “UK ministers float plan for ‘hydrogen-ready’ domestic boilers from 2026
    BEIS says strategy will reduce replacement costs but cautions there is no guarantee homes will ultimately run on the gas”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/13/uk-ministers-floats-plan-for-hydrogen-ready-domestic-boilers-from-2026

    Ministers are considering requiring that all new domestic boilers be “hydrogen-ready” from 2026, as they announced £100m for nuclear and hydrogen projects.

    The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has launched a consultation on improving boiler standards, and has argued there is a strong case for introducing hydrogen-ready boilers in the UK from 2026.

    The government is examining options to replace polluting fossil fuel gas in Britain’s energy system and has offered grants for households to install heat pumps.

    A ban on gas boilers in new homes comes into force in 2025, although uncertainty remains over the timeframe for the phase-out of fossil gas in existing homes.

    Hydrogen-ready boilers are initially installed to burn fossil gas but then can be easily converted to operate on hydrogen by an engineer.

    The consultation document argues that the strategy will reduce “the costs associated with scrapping natural gas-only boilers before the end of their useful life”.

    “Mandating hydrogen-ready boilers will give industry the confidence to prepare supply chains to ensure the benefits of the potential transition are maximised,” officials said.

    However, they cautioned that there is no guarantee that boilers will ultimately be converted to run on hydrogen…

    LikeLike

62. “SSE begins work on hydrogen storage cavern on Yorkshire coast
    Exclusive: Renewable energy will be kept in cathedral-sized cave for freezing, windless conditions”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/18/sse-begins-work-on-hydrogen-storage-cavern-on-yorkshire-coast

    The energy company SSE has begun work to develop an underground cavern in east Yorkshire to store hydrogen, aiming to stockpile the renewable source of power for when the freezing, windless conditions experienced in the last week occur in future.

    The project will produce hydrogen using renewable energy in a 35-megawatt electrolyser which will be stored in a cavern the size of St Paul’s Cathedral located a mile deep at an existing SSE site in Aldbrough on the Yorkshire coast.

    The hydrogen will be used to fire a turbine which can export power to the grid when demand is high.

    SSE hopes the “pathfinder” project, which could cost more than £100m, will demonstrate the technology before bigger projects in the area which would require larger pipelines and infrastructure. The company hopes to receive government money for the project through a fund set up to support low-carbon hydrogen projects.

    I’ll bet it does.

    Hydrogen is an expensive form of power generation as it requires large amounts of electricity to produce. However, it is seen as important in efforts to decarbonise heavy industries reliant on fossil fuels.

    This seems to be the reductio ad absurdum of net zero.

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63. https://twitter.com/hashtag/WhitbyResidentsSayNOtoHydrogen

    LikeLike

64. “Hydrogen heating trial treats us like guinea pigs – residents”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64028510

    “I wake up in the night thinking about it,” Maria Morgan says. “We’re guinea pigs.”

    Maria is on the front line of the UK’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.

    Her house in Whitby in Ellesmere Port, north-west England, is one of 2,000 homes earmarked to have its supply of natural gas turned off.

    If the Whitby proposal is approved, pure hydrogen will flow through its pipes from 2025. Hydrogen’s advantage is that unlike natural gas, it doesn’t produce the climate-warming gas CO2 when burnt….

    …But is hydrogen safe? The government and gas companies say it can be, even though hydrogen is both more leaky and combustible than natural gas.

    It’s also not clear how green the village will actually be. Though hydrogen can be made from water using renewable energy, more than 99% of the world’s supply is currently made from fossil fuels, creating CO2 emissions.

    While some Whitby residents welcome the proposal, others feel they’re being forced to take part in a dangerous experiment…

    …If the trial goes ahead, there will be no more natural gas in the Whitby “hydrogen village” area. Residents will have to choose between converting their homes to hydrogen or going electric with a heat pump, with all the new appliances provided free of charge.

    Both the gas companies and the government say residents are worrying needlessly about safety. They say that though hydrogen is more explosive, additional measures will be in place making the risk similar to that of natural gas.

    That doesn’t wash with Professor Tom Baxter, an expert in hydrogen at the University of Strathclyde.

    “Would you buy a car from a salesman who said, ‘This car will crash more often but because of the safety features, we will be just as safe?” he asks. “You wouldn’t do it.”..

    …Hydrogen is certainly cleaner and greener at the instant it burns. But how the hydrogen is made is critical, given how little is currently produced using renewable energy.

    Using hydrogen made from renewable electricity to heat buildings is also much less efficient than simply using the electricity.

    Dr Jan Rosenow, an energy expert and director of European programmes at the Regulatory Assistance Project, told the BBC that heating a home with this “green” hydrogen uses five or six times more electricity (to produce the hydrogen) than using the same renewable electricity to drive a heat pump.

    “When you look at it from a sort of scientific perspective and a consumer perspective the evidence is pretty clear that it’s not a good idea,” he says….

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65. Sabine Hossenfelder on hydrogen:

    LikeLike

66. “The race to make diesel engines run on hydrogen”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64248564

    But:

    …About 90% of fuel in the UNSW hybrid diesel engine is hydrogen but it must be applied in a carefully calibrated way.

    If the hydrogen is not introduced into the fuel mix at the right moment “it will create something that is explosive that will burn out the whole system,” Prof Kook explains….

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67. “Ballymena: Wrightbus to develop hydrogen production facility”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64602430

    Wrightbus is planning to develop a green hydrogen production facility at its factory in Ballymena.

    The proposal is being made in partnership with a sister company, Hygen Energy.

    Part of the Wrightbus business is the manufacturing of hydrogen-powered buses, some of which are operated by Translink.

    The new facility would help create a reliable source of fuel for those buses and other hydrogen-powered vehicles….

    …Currently most hydrogen sold in the UK is produced by splitting it from natural gas, a process which emits carbon dioxide.

    Green hydrogen is made by using renewable electricity to separate water into oxygen and hydrogen – a process called electrolysis…

    …The initial plans for Ballymena have not finalised the source of renewable energy for the electrolyser.

    The options would either be to buy it from an existing renewables generator or develop new renewable capacity such as wind or solar…

    LikeLike

68. This story is behind the Telegraph paywall, so Paul Homewood’s website is a good place to read about it:

    “Villagers stop boiler switch to hydrogen for net-zero trials”

    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/03/02/villagers-stop-boiler-switch-to-hydrogen-for-net-zero-trials/

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69. There we go. All you have to do is say “no” firmly enough, and this all just evaporates like the dew of the morning.

    LikeLike

70. These comments on Notalot did raise a chuckle:

    Phillip Bratby: I think the first hydrogen trial should be held in the houses of parliament.

    Nigel Sherratt: Guy Fawkes Plumbing Limited, gas fitters to the Gentry.

    Boom and bust, as they say.

    LikeLiked by 2 people

71. “Is hydrogen really a clean enough fuel to tackle the climate crisis?
    Backers say hydrogen projects should be first in line for almost $26bn in US taxpayer money – but should we believe the hype?”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/07/hydrogen-clean-fuel-climate-crisis-explainer

    Is there any role for hydrogen in a decarbonised future?
    Yes, but a limited one – given that it takes more energy to produce, store and transport hydrogen than it provides when converted into useful energy, so using anything but new renewable sources (true green hydrogen) will require burning more fossil fuels.

    According to the hydrogen merit ladder devised by Michael Liebreich, host of the Cleaning Up podcast, swapping clean hydrogen for the fossil fuel-based grey and brown stuff currently used for synthetic fertilisers, petrochemicals and steel is a no-brainer. The carbon footprint of global hydrogen production today is equivalent to Germany’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, so the sooner we swap to green hydrogen (created from new renewables) the better. This could also be useful for some transportation, such as long-haul flights and heavy machinery, and maybe to store surplus wind and solar energy – though none are slam dunks for hydrogen as there are alternative technologies vying for these markets, said Liebreich.

    But for most forms of transport (cars, bikes, buses and trains) and heating there are already safer, cleaner and cheaper technologies such as battery-run electric vehicles and heat pumps, so there’s little or no merit in investing time or money with hydrogen. Howarth said: “Renewable electricity is a scarce resource. Direct electrification and batteries offer so much more, and much more quickly. It’s a huge distraction and waste of resources to even be talking about heating homes and passenger vehicles with hydrogen.”

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72. “Devon hydrogen plant shortlisted for government support”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-65124563

    A hydrogen production project in Devon is one of 20 that could get financial support from the government.

    Carlton Power plans to produce and store hydrogen produced by renewable electricity at Langage Energy Park, near Plymouth.

    Langage Green Hydrogen is part of the government’s strategy Powering Up Britain, which plans to cut greenhouse gases by investing in renewable energy.

    Carlton Power said it was aiming to start commercial operation in 2025…

    …Hydrogen would be produced by solar and wind power, said Carlton, with hydrogen offered to local firms instead of natural gas or other energy sources…

    But will people want to use the hydrogen? And how much is the government (aka taxpayer) support? We aren’t told.

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73. There’s more:

    “NI green hydrogen projects win government grants”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-65122303

    Two green hydrogen projects in Northern Ireland have won government grants in the first round of the UK Net Zero Hydrogen Fund….

    …The government is trying to encourage more green hydrogen production as part of its strategy to radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

    In all, 15 projects across the UK will be awarded grant funding of £37.9m to support the development and deployment of new low-carbon hydrogen production plants.

    The amount of funding going to each project has not been disclosed….

    Why hasn’t it been disclosed? It’s our money. And I think we are entitled to ask whether it represents value for money.

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74. A couple of comments ago, I asked “But will people want to use the hydrogen?” Perhaps this story in today’s Guardian supplies the answer:

    “Cheshire villagers will not be forced to join hydrogen energy trial
    Backlash prompts companies to give residents option of keeping natural gas rather than joining pilot project”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/30/people-cheshire-village-not-forced-join-hydrogen-energy-trial-whitby

    Energy firms will no longer force people in a village in Cheshire to stop heating and cooking with natural gas and swap to lower-carbon hydrogen after a local backlash to a planned government-backed pilot.

    British Gas and Cadent had been prepared to cut off gas supplies to nearly 2,000 homes in the village of Whitby, just outside Ellesmere Port on the south bank of the Mersey, as part of proposals to create the UK’s first hydrogen-fuelled village.

    However, the companies have since rowed back, telling people they will have the option of adopting hydrogen or keeping gas for their home energy needs, after vocal opposition over a 10-month consultation process.

    While replacing natural gas with hydrogen in homes could help Britain hit its climate targets, residents have been concerned about the resulting costs, since hydrogen can be more expensive and repairs for specialised appliances could be costly if the technology is not widely adopted…./blockquote>

    LikeLiked by 1 person

75. Given the authoritarianism involved, I suppose I could have posted this as a comment on “Net Zero Democracy”, but here will do nicely:

    “Redcar hydrogen energy pilot homes denied opt-out option”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-65137431

    Opponents of a pilot project to replace home gas supplies with hydrogen say they should have the “same human right” to opt out as others.

    Redcar on Teesside and Whitby in Cheshire are bidding to host the trial.

    The Cheshire residents have been told by Cadent Gas they can opt out entirely but Northern Gas Networks (NGN) said the same would not apply in Redcar.

    NGN said residents could chose an electric alternative if they did not want hydrogen.

    Steve Rudd, from Redcar, said: “The lack of respect shown to consumers is unacceptable.”

    He said residents were still unclear about what alternatives to hydrogen would be provided and questioned whether NGN’s bid should be submitted before “telling residents what options are actually available to them”.

    The option to opt out entirely was in line with other projects elsewhere, he added.

    “We should have the same basic human right to choose,” he said.

    Human rights? Who are you kidding? Net zero has to save the planet, don’t you know!

    LikeLiked by 1 person

76. “Blending hydrogen into gas heating ‘could add almost £200’ to UK bills
    Campaigners say potential energy plan would leave consumers bearing cost of building hydrogen economy”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/11/blending-hydrogen-gas-heating-add-almost-200-uk-bills

    Blending hydrogen into the UK’s gas heating systems could raise consumer bills by almost £200 for an average household, analysis suggests.

    The blending of natural gas with about 20% hydrogen, for use in home heating systems, is one of the key recommendations by the government’s hydrogen champion, Jane Toogood, in a report to ministers on how to produce and use hydrogen in the UK.

    But a group of green campaigners, thinktanks and energy companies have written to the energy secretary, Grant Shapps, urging him to reconsider. Analysis by the thinktank E3G shows hydrogen blending could increase the average household’s heating bill by about £192 a year.

    In the letter, seen by the Guardian, the groups warn that blending hydrogen into the gas supply would require consumers to use more gas, as hydrogen provides less energy than fossil gas when used in this way. “We disagree with the report’s recommendation to stimulate demand for hydrogen through blending and heating,” wrote the groups, led by E3G.

    “This puts the early costs of building the hydrogen economy on the shoulders of consumers, who will bear the costs of higher energy bills and costs of conversion – on top of the proposed ‘hydrogen levy’ set out in the energy bill. As hydrogen is more expensive than the gas currently used to heat most UK homes, a 20% blend can only raise consumer prices. Raising energy bills during a cost of living crisis is the wrong way to develop industrial demand for hydrogen.”

    The government is expected to decide this year whether to press ahead with plans for the blending of hydrogen into the UK’s natural gas networks, which could happen as soon as 2025. Ministers are also considering a hydrogen levy on bills to fund its development.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

77. Quite a bunch of sceptics at the Guardian these days.

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78. Arguably a puff piece for hydrogen:

    “Scotland’s hydrogen opportunity”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-65561904

    However, Douglas Fraser can generally be relied on to offer a balanced write-up, and so it proves. He concludes:

    …Transport could use it as well, but the expectation that it could be of use in cars is waning. Batteries are seen as making more sense in terms of anticipated cost, as they do even for urban buses.

    Passenger trains have spearheaded the prototype deployment of hydrogen, but don’t look like becoming a big customer, where the infrastructure of electricity can power them instead.

    Instead, it looks more like heavy transport being a heavy user of hydrogen, including trucks and shipping, plus some agriculture that reaches beyond the electricity grid, or where the need for refuelling is a constraint.

    The other area where hydrogen was seen as the answer to a huge decarbonising challenge was in home heating. That is looking less likely. Even non-domestic heating is seen in these Scottish Enterprise reports as having a relatively low potential, including the use of hydrogen to fire up Scotland’s crematoria.

    Hydrogen as an energy source has its doubters and critics, and it remains a heated debate. The green variety, derived from water using renewable energy, is welcomed. But the blue variety, from cracking natural gas, much less so.

    It would require a lot of carbon capture and storage, putting a lot more emphasis on the ‘net’ – the mitigation of burning fossil fuels – than on the ‘zero’.

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79. Timera Energy have explained how the EU is classifying “green” hydrogen and the implications for the producers in terms of power sources, etc.:
    https://timera-energy.com/sourcing-green-power-for-electrolyser-projects/

    It shows, once again, that ideas which appear simple in concept – such as using (excess) renewable electricity to generate hydrogen – are anything but straightforward in detail.

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80. I’ve posted this elsewhere at Cliscep, but it needs to be here too:

    “Shapps signals U-turn on planned hydrogen levy for energy bills
    Energy security secretary says costs should be paid for ‘further up the chain’ rather than by households”

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jun/24/shapps-signals-u-turn-planned-hydrogen-levy-energy-bills

    Grant Shapps has signalled the government will U-turn on its planned hydrogen levy on energy bills.

    The annual levy, estimated to add about £118 a year to already soaring energy bills, had been expected to be introduced in 2025 via the energy bill going through parliament. The fee was intended to cover the cost of producing the low-carbon gas instead of polluting fossil fuels.

    But the energy security secretary has now said he does not support a “levy directly on households”, signalling a possible U-turn as households struggle with high inflation and this week’s shock interest rate rise. Instead, he said, it should be paid for “further up the chain”.

    “What we need to do is make sure that, A, we can get our hydrogen industry up and running. Really, really important, massive export opportunities, great way to store energy, great way to power heavy industry and what have you,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

    “And, B, I don’t want to see people’s household bills unnecessarily bashed by this.”

    The thinktank Onward has estimated the levy would increase energy bills by about £118 a year for the average dual fuel household….

    Of course, it’s all smoke and mirrors, and the Guardian headline is hardly justified. The government, it appears has no intention of making a U-turn on hydrogen, sensible though that would be. Instead, we still have to pay for it, we just aren’t supposed to notice it – so instead of putting it on our energy bills, where it will be obvious, they’ll make us pay for it by a different route, and will pretend that this isn”t yet another cost of the “cheap” renewable energy “revolution”:

    …Shapps said he supported other ways of moving towards cleaner energy and net zero, which he said could include passing the costs on to the energy industry or general taxation.

    The law’s wording would ensure the cost would not be applied directly to bills, he said.

    “The fuss was because there was a clause in the energy bill which would take powers to [impose a hydrogen levy], though not actually legislate,” he told the newspaper. “But I’m going to make sure that, whatever that clause is, it makes it clear that’s not a levy directly on households. The way that’s funded will have to be further up the chain.”

    Discussions between his department, No 10 and the Treasury aim to reach a conclusion on the new approach, according to the Telegraph, with an alternative funding scheme hoped to be agreed before the parliamentary recess next month…..

    They’re playing us for fools. How can it conceivably help the public to charge us the same amount, but by picking a different pocket>

    …The hydrogen levy plans prompted a backlash from within his own party and opposition MPs, who fear further bill increases amid the war in Ukraine and the cost of living crisis….

    As for Labour – I despair:

    …Alan Whitehead, a shadow energy minister, said: “This is yet another humiliating U-turn for Rishi Sunak, showing that his government is completely out of touch with reality.

    “During a cost of living crisis, millions of families are already struggling to make ends meet and yet the government have been doggedly pursuing these regressive levies for months, only to finally back down over fears of a rebellion from their own backbenches.”

    He said Labour would instead overhaul Britain’s “broken” energy system and “deliver the green transition we so desperately need, energy security and bills that are affordable”.

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81. Spain going very big on green hydrogen:
    https://gcaptain.com/spain-risking-billions-to-export-green-hydrogen/?subscriber=true&goal=0_f50174ef03-1921154940-170410014&mc_cid=1921154940&mc_eid=9275323244

    Investments of €18 bn are planned to make it the “Saudi Arabia” of green hydrogen (familiar phrase!). They are planning a €2.5 bn pipeline to France as well as ammonia production on a massive scale for shipment abroad. The economics must be horrendous.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

82. “Ellesmere Port hydrogen heating trial scrapped after protests”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-66165484

    Plans for a Cheshire village to be used to trial the UK’s first hydrogen-powered community have been scrapped after residents objected.

    Gas firm Cadent had applied for Whitby in Ellesmere Port to be included as the site for the Hydrogen Village pilot.

    The aim was to test the suitability of the gas for domestic homes – but the plans were met with opposition, with some saying they felt like “lab rats”.

    Energy Minister Lord Martin Callanan confirmed Whitby would not be used.

    MP Justin Madders said there had been safety concerns and the decision was inevitable.

    Lord Callanan said: “After listening to the views of residents it’s clear that there is no strong local support….”

    ……As well as Whitby, trials were also proposed for Redcar in Teesside. It would involve hydrogen boilers being installed in about 2,000 homes.

    But some residents were uneasy about their natural gas being turned off and replaced with pure hydrogen from 2025.

    Justin Madders, Labour MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston, said: “It is clear that asking people to try experimental new forms of energy consumption for their homes will not work unless basic questions about safety, efficacy and cost can be answered from the start.

    “It is also clear that leaving people with the impression that this was happening without their consent sent entirely the wrong message out about how we need to tackle climate change.”

    Cadent said it would be “disappointing to the many residents who told us they wanted their community to play a pioneering role in decarbonising how we heat our homes in the UK”.

    While Whitby would not be used as the location for the trial, the information the firm had gained would play an “invaluable role in shaping how the UK heats its homes and businesses”, the spokesman said….

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83. “UK poised to drop plans to replace home gas boilers with hydrogen alternatives
    Energy secretary indicates cooling of government aspirations as concerns grow over costs, safety and efficiency”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/13/uk-poised-to-drop-plans-for-hydrogen-to-replace-natural-gas-in-homes

    Controversial UK government aspirations to replace gas boilers in some homes with a hydrogen-based alternative are likely to be scrapped, Grant Shapps, the energy minister, has indicated.

    Shapps said he believed hydrogen would form part of Britain’s overall energy mix but predicted it was “less likely” that the gas would be routinely piped into people’s homes, amid growing concerns about cost, safety and perpetuating a reliance on fossil fuels.

    Trials have been under way as part of a government move to phase out natural gas boilers by 2035 amid a broader effort to decarbonise domestic heating, which accounts for about 17% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.

    But the plans have in some cases been described as unsafe and have met with opposition in areas that have been earmarked for pilot schemes.

    Shapps said: “There was a time when people thought … you will have something that just looks like a gas boiler and we will feed hydrogen into it.”

    He added: “It’s not that we won’t do trials. We will. But I think hydrogen will be used for storing energy. You won’t have to switch off windfarms when you don’t need the power because you can turn it into hydrogen and use it later.”

    Despite being more combustible and leakier than natural gas, energy firms have insisted that hydrogen can be made safe and have engaged in concerted lobbying of both the government and Labour to convince them of its merits.

    But the assurances have failed to convince people asked to take part in large-scale trials of the technology.

    Whitby, near Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, was to host the first village-wide trial of hydrogen home heating but the government ditched the plan this month in the face of local opposition.

    Shapps said: “It is fundamentally unpopular in that area and I don’t believe in telling people we will be coming in to rip up out your boiler to replace it with this other thing that you don’t want, when they are other areas of the country that actually do want to go ahead with a trial.”..

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84. So Shapps, despite genuflecting to the Biden-Kerry-Charles III climate enforcement squad on Monday, is doing the sensible thing later in the week. Headless chickens may be unfair. Anyone detecting a trend in real-world movement?

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85. “Critics argue that creating green hydrogen for home heating is six times less energy efficient than using heat pumps powered by electricity, and say that switching from gas boilers to heat pumps could save money as well as cut emissions.”

    Until Shapps announces that the government has abandoned its plans to replace gas boilers with heat pumps, this is just shuffling the deck chairs.

    https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/nearly-every-home-heat-pump-hydrogen-replace-gas-ditched-2477230

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86. This will give the hydrogen fans a boost:
    https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/excitement-grows-about-natural-hydrogen-as-huge-reserves-found-in-france/
    These claims remain to be proven.
    It would be interesting to hear Alan K’s views…..

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87. Mike
    I have no special insight into natural hydrogen. The North American oil industry when I worked for it (1980s) certainly were not exploring for it.
    I note that some hydrogen is linked to the presence of unoxidised iron minerals (although the link is not spelled out) and Britain is not listed as a potential site for European hydrogen. This is rather odd because much of the Jurassic iron ores in England do contain a proportion of unoxidised iron (as well as oxidised iron minerals). Thus, if the link between unoxidised iron and hydrogen is a real one, I would suggest Britain has hydrogen potential.

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88. Thanks Alan.
    The USGS survey mentioned in the article will be interesting. It’s due at the end of the year.
    If there is significant potential it would cause sleepless nights for the green hydrogen lobby as it would blow their costs out of the water.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

89. As far as I understand, current ideas suggest that there are two primary source processes for naturally occurring hydrogen. The dominant one is serpentinisation of ultramafic rocks at temperatures exceeding 200 degrees C. The only ‘commercial’ well operating is in Mali and here the hydrogen is thought to be the result of serpentinisation. Interestingly the weeks are shallow suggesting an efficient transport of the hydrogen to shallow depths in the crust. The well is only commercial in the sense that it has produced hydrogen for a decade or so which was used to power a small generator providing electricity for a local community. The other process is radiolysis of water by naturally occurring radionuclides, principally uranium.
    There’s been a lot of recent interest in so called white hydrogen with suggestions that it could be ‘sustainable’ and constantly replenished by production of new gas due to water-rock reactions. Others have even suggested that it might be possible to pump water into deep boreholes in ultramafic rocks and stimulate hydrogen production.
    My view is we are far from understanding the reaction thermodynamics and kinetics, transport pathways, potential traps and possible sinks for hydrogen such that commercialisation is going to be a long way off. The geology and geochemistry, though, is fascinating and it is stimulating a lot of interest and research.

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90. Slightly (but only slightly) O/T, given Grant Shapps’ comments about heat pumps being favoured over hydrogen boilers, here’s what the GWPF today has to say about that:

    The findings call into question the Net Zero heating plans of energy minister Grant Shapps who has today called for every home to be equipped with a heat pump by 2050.

    The economics of heat pumps are driven by the ‘gain’, the amount of heat output per unit electricity input, and by the ratio between electricity and gas prices. New data from the Energy Systems Catapult reveals that the typical heat pump delivers a gain of 2.8, but the price ratio is 4. This means that the majority of people will find a heat pump more expensive to run than a new gas boiler.

    Moreover, nobody will see an overall payback once the capital cost is taken into account. The paper also shows that the cost of reducing carbon dioxide emissions using heat pumps is much higher than estimates of the cost of the damage due to global warming.

    The paper’s author, Andrew Montford, said:

    “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.”

    Key points

    • The economics of heat pumps are driven by the ratio of electricity and gas prices, and the heat pump ‘gain’ – the units of heat energy emitted for each unit of electricity used.

    • Heat pumps are mostly deployed in countries with very cheap electricity.

    • 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. The ratio is currently around 4.

    • Heat pump gains have been improving, but only slowly. The median for an air-source heat pump is around 2.8.

    • Thus, even taking into account inefficiencies of gas boilers, the majority of people will find a gas boiler cheaper to run than an air-source heat pump.

    • Although substantial grants are available to install heat pumps, once the (net) capital cost is taken into account, almost nobody doing so will see an overall payback.

    • To assess the overall economic effect of installing a heat pump, the capital cost before grants has to be incorporated into the calculation. If this is done, it is found that no heat pump installation is economic.

    • The marginal abatement cost of reducing emission through heat pumps is over £300/t CO2, several times more than estimates of the damage caused by global warming.

    • Installing heat pumps is therefore a mistake, on every measure.

    For more detail, see here:

    Click to access Montford-Heat-Pumps.pdf

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91. There’s another huge drawback to heat pumps – the noise. If, as the government plans, every household is going to be forced to install one of these pumps, in densely populated areas, they’re going to be air source pumps and they’re going to be sited within earshot of neighbouring properties. On cold, still days (and nights), when they are running constantly, when the fan is whirring away at full speed and the compressor is squeezing as much ‘heat’ from the cold air as it possibly can, I imagine that the din will be infernal.

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92. I’ll leave this here without comment, other than to note that the author is the Chair of the Green Hydrogen Organisation:

    https://gh2.org/

    “Only genuinely clean hydrogen can help solve the climate crisis
    Malcolm Turnbull
    COP28 in Dubai needs to be the moment the world commits to producing hydrogen with near zero emissions by 2030”

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/17/only-genuinely-clean-hydrogen-can-help-solve-the-climate-crisis

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93. “The Guardian view on hydrogen hype: it’s perhaps not as green as you think
    Editorial
    Low carbon emissions in Europe cannot come at the cost of environmental destruction abroad”

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/27/the-guardian-view-on-hydrogen-hype-its-perhaps-not-as-green-as-you-think

    unisia is one of the driest countries in Africa, and has just suffered three years of drought. Yet the EU sees the country as key to producing “green hydrogen” for export to Europe. The trouble is, this fuel is obtained by splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen with electricity generated by renewable sources. Tunisia has lots of sun but precious little fresh water.

    The only way of producing the raw material needed for green hydrogen is sucking up Mediterranean water and desalinating it. But a report last year for the Heinrich Böll Foundation, affiliated to Germany’s green political movement, warns that this would be a dirty, energy-intensive, water-guzzling process – and put the high cost of decarbonising the rich world on to the shoulders of poorer nations.

    Many sun-drenched countries, especially in the Maghreb, have been sold a future as export hubs for green hydrogen. The pitch is seductive. As 1kg of hydrogen contains about three times as much energy as 1kg of petrol, it is no wonder that hydrogen is being touted as a fuel of the future. Europe’s green deal, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by the end of the decade, relies on green hydrogen production in north Africa and Ukraine.

    Producing green hydrogen in Europe is not impossible. But it is expensive compared with fossil fuels, with even wind-based generation needing larger subsidies. Without big government support packages, it remains an open question whether European consumers would be prepared to foot the very significant price rises needed to go green in this way.

    Last year, the EU proposed doubling green hydrogen imports by 2030 to 10m tonnes a year. The continent’s heavy industries cannot use electricity, however environmentally friendly, for all their requirements; they need fuels for high-intensity heat. So to make sure that these energy sources are less carbon-intensive, Brussels is pushing industries – such as steel or petrochemical manufacturers – to adopt green hydrogen….

    …Transitioning to net zero emissions globally should not mean the rich gain at the expense of the poor.

    But it does!

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94. “Global push for clean hydrogen foiled by costs and lack of support, report finds
    IEA says firms are announcing more projects but waiting for government support before investing”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/22/global-push-for-clean-hydrogen-foiled-by-costs-and-lack-of-support-report-finds

    The global push for clean hydrogen is being held back by rising costs and “lagging” policy support from governments, a report has found.

    Announcements of low-emission hydrogen projects are rapidly expanding but developers are waiting for government support before investing in them, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The report found hydrogen made through processes that are clean or less polluting account for less than 1% of the gas’s total production and use.

    The IEA executive director, Fatih Birol, said the world had seen “incredible momentum” behind low-emission hydrogen projects in recent years “but a challenging economic environment will now test the resolve of hydrogen developers and policymakers to follow through on planned projects”….

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95. “Biden is boosting hydrogen but some are unhappy”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67105363

    US President Joe Biden is unveiling a $7bn (£5.7bn) investment in hydrogen hubs to combat climate change. So why are environmental groups sceptical?

    On a visit to Philadelphia on Friday, Mr Biden announced the creation of seven regional hubs from Pennsylvania to California to help replace fossil fuels with cleaner-burning hydrogen.

    The White House says the hubs, located in 16 states, will help cut carbon emissions equivalent to what more than 5.5 million gasoline-powered cars put into the air each year. The aim is to have the hubs produce around three million metric tons of hydrogen annually.

    Hydrogen has a lot of green potential. When burned, it does not release the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet.

    But Friends of the Earth, a leading environmental group, called the new initiative a “disappointing step”….

    …The blowback comes down to how hydrogen power is made.

    At the moment most hydrogen is extracted from natural gas in a process that emits a lot of carbon dioxide….

    …It is possible to make a cleaner type of hydrogen – often called green hydrogen – by using renewable energy. Wind turbines or solar panels can power electrolysers that split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

    But that is much more expensive than using natural gas – as much as two or three times as costly – so the industry is reluctant to do it….

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96. From Power Engineering International:
    “At the site of the HYFLEXPOWER project in France, hydrogen is produced by a 1MW electrolyser to power a SGT-400 industrial gas turbine. In what is claimed to be a world first, the demonstrator has successfully shown the turbines can be fueled with up to 100% hydrogen, as well as with natural gas and any blends in between.”
    So a small-scale pilot is up and running. Still a very long way to go before this reaches grid scale. That will only happen when all of the existing turbines are modified or replaced to handle hydrogen.

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97. “Hydrogen boiler push to continue despite verdict of UK watchdog
    Government and gas-focused industry body resist conclusion that heat pumps are ‘only viable’ option for heating UK homes”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/21/hydrogen-boiler-home-heating-uk

    The government and sections of UK industry will continue to back the prospect of using hydrogen for home heating, despite a clear verdict against the technology from the UK’s infrastructure watchdog.

    The National Infrastructure Commission advised this week, after an exhaustive investigation of the technology, that hydrogen was not suitable for heating homes. The report was unambiguous: “The Commission’s analysis demonstrates that there is no public policy case for hydrogen to be used to heat individual buildings. It should be ruled out as an option to enable an exclusive focus on switching to electrified heat.”

    However, the government indicated to the Guardian that it would continue to push hydrogen for home heating, and the body that represents most of the heating industry also vowed to continue to pursue it.

    The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero takes the view that the gas network “will always be part of our energy system”, and told the Guardian it would continue to work with the heating industry to explore the potential for hydrogen in home heating….

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98. “Green energy: Fears slow hydrogen strategy threatens sector”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-67355361

    The slow adoption of hydrogen fuel in the UK risks businesses moving overseas, a utilities boss has warned.

    Wales and West Utilities said the country’s competitiveness could be at risk as a result.

    Director of regulation, Sarah Williams, said firms could be forced to look abroad for cleaner fuel sources “if we, as a country, don’t make some decisions around hydrogen soon”.

    The UK government said it was assessing hydrogen’s safety and value for money….

    Guess what?

    As the owner of 21,750 miles (35,000km) of gas pipes, Wales and West has a commercial interest in pursuing the roll-out of hydrogen as a fuel.

    The advent of widescale hydrogen fuel was “the most exciting time ever” for the energy market, said Ms Williams.

    Money, money, money.

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99. “Redcar protest over ‘hydrogen village’ plans”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-67467708

    A protest has been held in Redcar against a government proposal to test the potential for heating homes with hydrogen.

    Some 2,000 properties would be part of a “hydrogen village”, looking at green alternatives to gas boilers.

    But people living there are “angry” there has not been a local vote.

    The government said strong community support would be “a critical factor” in approving a trial and it is due to make a decision soon.

    If approved, Northern Gas Networks (NGN) would switch the properties from natural gas to hydrogen heating.

    Plans for a similar trial near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, were scrapped earlier this year in the face of local opposition.

    Safety is understood to be the primary concern, with more than 500 people signing a petition calling for a vote….

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100. Details of yet another WEET conference have just come to my attention, this one (due to take place on 29th February 2024) being titled “Next steps for the hydrogen industry in the UK”. It’s disturbing to see the extent to which this folly seems to be full steam ahead. There is a section, below the agenda, described as “relevant developments”, which contains this:

     Hydrogen transport and storage infrastructure: minded to positions – DESNZ consultation in August 2023, which detailed:

     o the business model to support development of hydrogen transport infrastructure, which will focus on transporting of hydrogen as a gas via large-scale onshore pipelines

     o a subsidy mechanism which will be created to enable hydrogen transporters to make adequate returns on their investment

     o plans to create a revenue floor to support storage providers, in order to mitigate risk

     – Scoping report on the material requirements for a UK hydrogen economy – published by the British Geological Survey in June 2023, which:

     o examined key barriers the Government may face in securing raw materials for growing the hydrogen economy

     o provided an overview of supply side risks associated with an overreliance on imports, such as price volatility

     o makes suggestions such as developing technology and industry/government relationships

     – Energy Act 2023 – granted royal assent in October 2023

     o introducing a mechanism allowing the Government to fund developments in the hydrogen industry

     o it includes plans to make commercial arrangements for carbon capture and storage as well as hydrogen production and transportation

     – Billions of investment for British manufacturing to boost economic growth – announcement from the Treasury in November 2023, including:

     o plans to create Hydrogen Industry Taskforce

     o a £960m funding package for clean energy

     – Energy Secretary poised to approve hydrogen trial despite local protests – reporting from The Telegraph November 2023, the scheme would switch 2000 homes in North Yorkshire to hydrogen heating

     – Germany and UK in talks over 400-mile hydrogen pipeline under the North Sea – reporting from Politico in November 2023, following the clean hydrogen partnership

     – Powering Up Britain – policy paper published by DESNZ in March 2023, including:

     o confirmation of the first 15 winning projects from the £240m Net Zero Hydrogen Fund, and the two CCUS-enabled hydrogen projects moving forward on the Track-1 clusters

     o a shortlist of 20 projects to enter due diligence for the first electrolytic hydrogen allocation round

     o announcement of the intention to open two further hydrogen funding rounds in 2023

     – Hydrogen Champion Report – published by DESNZ in March 2023, with recommendations for government and industry to accelerate the development of the UK hydrogen economy, including:

     o blending hydrogen into distribution networks

     o clarity on the plans to use hydrogen in home heating

     o for the industry to work closely with authorities to deliver safety assessments about blending hydrogen

     o for new boilers to be made hydrogen ready

     o development of the hydrogen market, by expanding demand for its use in the gas grid, and for heat and vehicles

     – Britain’s Hydrogen Blending Delivery Plan – published by ENA in January 2022, outlining a plan for gas blending based on:

     o research showing that a 20% hydrogen blend could reduce yearly carbon emissions by 6m tonnes

     o required changes to gas safety regulations

     o different business models, such as strategic or free market approaches

     – BMW poised to launch hydrogen cars by 2030 – but warns UK is lagging behind – reporting from Shropshire Star in October 2023 following the closure of three hydrogen filling stations, with Shell citing a lack of confidence

     The problems (supply side risks, price volatility, over-reliance on imports), costs and subsidies might give a rational Government pause for thought, but it seems nothing (certainly not common sense) is to be allowed to get in the way of net zero.

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101. “Warning: the UK government’s hydrogen plan isn’t green at all, it’s another oil industry swindle”

     https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/04/uk-government-hydrogen-plan-oil-industry-taxpayer-blue-hydrogen-climate-crisis

     …leaks of hydrogen in production and during distribution to homes and businesses present a serious problem. Indirectly, hydrogen is a potent greenhouse gas. Over the key 20-year timeframe, each tonne of hydrogen will cause 33 times more warming than a tonne of CO2. And hydrogen is even more liable to leakage than methane, both due to its particularly small molecular size, and because it will have to be piped at a higher pressure to compensate for its lower energy density. …

     …Despite these glaring shortcomings, producers certified by the LCHS can call their product “low carbon”. Moreover, they can access substantial taxpayer support with grants of up to £10m from a £240m pot. And the costly carbon-capture and storage industry, now under development to serve blue hydrogen, is supported by a further £1bn of public money. Worse still, the government has announced plans to support the operational costs of blue hydrogen producers for 15 years. This proposal could see the taxpayer funding anything up to the entire cost of converting methane into blue hydrogen.

     This is not the result of reasoned, evidence-based policy for rapidly decarbonising our entire energy system. It’s an agenda aligned with the fossil fuel industry. Chris Jackson, the chair of a leading hydrogen industry lobby group, even resigned in protest in 2021, stating that the blue hydrogen projects on offer in the UK were “not sustainable” and “make no sense at all”….

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102. The Telegraph, via Paul Homewood:

     Unpopular hydrogen trials to be expanded to thousands more homes

     Hydrogen could replace natural gas in thousands of homes under controversial plans to decarbonise entire towns in Britain’s push towards net zero.

     Ministers have asked the UK’s main gas network operators to nominate the most suitable towns to be moved from methane to pure hydrogen as part of the pilot over the next decade.

     It comes as the Government prepares to publish its long-awaited “Hydrogen Roadmap”, which will set out how the UK can build a network of hydrogen production factories, and convert homes, businesses, and transport networks to the green fuel.

     In a recent letter from the Government, operators were told that policymakers want to “support the development of plans for a pilot hydrogen town which could potentially be implemented before the end of this decade”.

     They were asked to supply the names of towns they deemed “most suitable for conversion to enable hydrogen heating at scale”.

     Subsequent suggestions for potential hydrogen towns include Aberdeen, Scunthorpe, and areas close to Humberside and Merseyside.

     Two towns in Wales and another in the West Country have also been proposed, although only one or two of the nominated towns will be chosen.

     The plan will no doubt prove controversial.

     The Government has already been forced to abandon plans for a smaller “hydrogen village” in Whitby after local protests.

     However, moving the UK away from natural gas is essential to achieve net zero targets and Ministers are seeking new ways to press ahead.

     If you can get beyond the paywall:

     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/12/09/unpopular-hydrogen-trials-expanded-more-homes-backlash/

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103. I’m currently drafting an article on this Mark.

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104. Jaime,

     I shall look forward to it. Please feel free to link to it on this thread. There’s no shortage of madness to write about….

     LikeLiked by 1 person

105. “Could there be a gold rush for buried hydrogen?”

     https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67541581

     Earlier this year Professor Jacques Pironon was searching for methane in the Lorraine Basin, northeast France, when his team made an unexpected discovery.

     Around 3,000m underground they found a very large deposit of hydrogen.

     “It is what we call serendipity,” says Prof Pironon, research director at France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) at the University of Lorraine.

     Not long ago such a find would have been of academic interest only, but these days it creates a stir.

     That’s because many think hydrogen will be an essential fuel in years to come. They argue it could be the key to moving the global economy to net zero, as hydrogen does not produce CO2 when used as a fuel or in industrial processes….

     The French discovery is not the first time that naturally-occurring hydrogen has been found – there’s already a small well in Bourakébougou, western Mali, and there are also believed to be large deposits in the US, Australia, Russia and a number of European countries.

     …However, the discovery in France is believed to represent the largest naturally-occurring deposit of the gas ever found. Prof Pironon estimates there could be 250 million tonnes of hydrogen, enough to meet current global demand for more than two years.

     There could be many more hydrogen deposits lying undiscovered around the world – the US Geological Survey (USGS), estimates thousands or perhaps billions of megatonnes.

     Not all this will be readily exploitable, cautions USGS research geologist Geoffrey Ellis, who has modelled the amount of geological hydrogen.

     “This is the global model, and the vast majority is going to be inaccessible – too deep or too far offshore, or in accumulations that are much too small for it to ever become economical to actually access,” he says…

     …So far, the major energy players are holding back.

     “The big oil companies, I think, are very interested, but they’re currently sitting on the sidelines, watching, taking a bit of a wait-and-see attitude. They’re letting the start-ups take the risk – at this point this is a highly risky venture,” says Mr Ellis…

     …”So there’s a sort of chicken and egg problem: markets aren’t really developing until they see the supply, and the supply won’t really be developed until they see the market,” says Mr Ellis.

     But, he adds: “I think it’s a function of how much effort we put in. If we really decide this is something we need to figure out quickly, I think it could be done.”

     Questions – is this safe? Is it practical (from an engineering point of view)? Is it financially viable?

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106. Mark, I shall have to correct my article as I presumed wrongly that there were no natural deposits of hydrogen. Even so, it appears they are not so readily exploitable as natural gas and oil deposits.

     https://jaimejessop.substack.com/p/uk-government-set-to-nominate-hydrogen

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107. Jaime,

     Yes, I spotted that. I posted that BBC article to draw your attention to it, as much as anything else, though for anyone following the hydrogen issue, it may be of interest.

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108. Mark, on the unexpected promise of Gold Hydrogen:

     “For decades, few geologists believed Earth held significant hydrogen deposits, because the gas is so readily eaten up by microbes or chemically altered into other forms. But prospectors are now fanning out across the globe, spurred by the discovery of a massive hydrogen field underneath a village in Mali and records suggesting puzzling surges of nearly pure hydrogen in old boreholes. Whereas oil and gas companies tend to tap relatively youthful basins of sedimentary rock, hydrogen hunters are probing the crystalline, ancient hearts of continents for the iron-rich rocks thought to fuel hydrogen production.”

     It remains to be seen whether existing deposits are indeed large enough or commercially exploitable, as most are buried very deep.

     https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-bets-it-can-drill-climate-friendly-hydrogen-just-oil

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109. “Redcar hydrogen trial scrapped by government”

     https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c842wzn9g35o

     A proposed pilot project to replace home gas supplies with hydrogen will not go ahead, the government has said.

     Redcar, on Teesside, was the remaining area bidding to host the trial after proposals for Ellesmere Port were scrapped in July due to residents’ objections.

     Both areas have seen protests by people concerned about safety, cost, and the ability to opt out of any trial.

     Northern Gas Networks (NGN), which would have run the Redcar trial, said it was “disappointed”.

     The company said the trial was not going ahead because the expected green hydrogen facilities would not now be available.

     “We’re disappointed that we won’t be able to take forward our plan to heat homes and businesses in Redcar with low carbon hydrogen,” a spokesperson said.

     “Without adequate local hydrogen production, it is no longer possible to deliver the project.”

     There was an interesting interview about this on PM this evening. If I find time, I might transcribe it.

     LikeLiked by 1 person

110. Meanwhile:

     “Barrow green hydrogen plant given government funding”

     https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2vy673pqppo

     Plans to build a hydrogen facility powered by renewable energy have been awarded government funding.

     The Barrow Green Hydrogen project, run by energy company Carlton Power, would supply green hydrogen to the neighbouring Kimberley-Clark manufacturing plant in the Cumbrian town.

     This would reduce the company’s reliance on natural gas by up to 30%, Carlton said.

     Hydrogen projects director Eric Adams said the energy firm was “delighted” with the funding announcement….

     I bet it is! But why so coy about telling us how much taxpayers’ money is being spent on this? All we learn is that the plant is to cost a whopping £50M – the writer of the article apparently doesn’t think the size of the government grant is sufficiently relevant to tell us how much it is.

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111. Mark, there will be no surplus wind generated electricity, so they will have have to generate the electricity needed to split water into oxygen and ‘green’ hydrogen from CCGTs. So effectively they will be burning natural (fossil fuel) gas to produce ‘green’ hydrogen, which is intended to replace natural gas! No wonder they call it Nut Zero.

     Billions To Be Wasted On Inefficient Hydrogen Factories

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112. There is to be another Westminster Energy Environment & Transport Forum (WEET) conference on 29th February, headed “Next steps for the hydrogen industry in the UK”. “Give it up as a bad job” doesn’t seem to be an option. There is the usual supporting cast in the form of speakers. They include Katie Ostheimer, Deputy Director, Hydrogen Supply, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero; Jane Toogood, UK Hydrogen Champion; and Co-Chair, Hydrogen Advisory Council; Nick Winser, Commissioner, National Infrastructure Commission; and Clare Jackson, Chief Executive, Hydrogen UK.

     That looks like a lot of vested interests, so I suspect this issue isn’t going away. Certainly WEET thinks it’s got legs, its conference notes commencing:

     This conference will discuss priorities for developing hydrogen production, decarbonisation and commercialisation in the UK.

     And it continues:

     It is bringing key stakeholders together with policymakers to assess next steps for financing hydrogen projects following the latest Hydrogen Allocation Round (HAR2), alongside opportunities for making hydrogen more competitive and creating resilient markets.

     Following recommendations in the Hydrogen Champion Report and government’s recent consultation response on hydrogen blending into GB gas distribution networks, there will be discussion on overcoming logistical challenges along the supply chain, achieving more effective transport and storage solutions, and the way forward for addressing costs and affordability.

     The discussion also takes place in the context of calls from the hydrogen industry for government to incentivise green investment, amidst concern over recent changes to milestones for implementation of aspects of net zero policy.

     Further sessions will examine strategies for tackling obstacles to production, scaling up and implementation of hydrogen as a competitive option for key industries, such as domestic heating, transport, maritime, aviation and heavy industry.

     We also expect discussion on frameworks for collaboration between stakeholders in hydrogen and the wider energy sector, key markets, R&D and investment, and government and regulation.

     Isn’t this telling? “…calls from the hydrogen industry for government to incentivise green investment”.

     When are the (sadly usually left-wing) net zero fanatics wake up and realise that they’re being played for fools by Big Green industry? And that the UK taxpayer is the loser, along with the poorest in society.

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113. Another £2 Billion Handed Out To Subsidise Hydrogen

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114. “Brewery’s hydrogen plant approved despite gas pipeline concerns”

     https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-68217414

     A brewery is set to shed the 11,000 tonnes of carbon emissions it generates each year after it was given the green light for a hydrogen production facility.

     The development would be constructed on greenbelt land next to the AB InBev brewery in Samlesbury, Lancashire.

     A planning committee member had cited safety concerns regarding a gas pipeline running through the site.

     The firm behind the plans insisted it was “safe”.

     Councillor Peter Mullineaux said he was “flabbergasted” by South Ribble Borough Council’s planning committee decision.

     “If there was an explosion, it’d be catastrophic,” he said….

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115. So they are going to produce hydrogen by electrolysis and then burn it in their boilers instead of natural gas. This is all in the name of cutting CO2 emissions, presumably because of its greenhouse gas properties.
     Unfortunately hydrogen burns with a much higher flame temp than natural gas, promoting the formation of various NOx compounds which are also greenhouse gases and considerably more potent than CO2.
     Then there’s all the H&S issues: they will have to spend a lot of money on any rooms/buildings where hydrogen could be present.
     Now if only stupidity was flammable……

     LikeLiked by 1 person

116. “Hydrogen fuel plant for vehicles could be built in Exeter”

     https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-68275705

     A pilot plant supplying hydrogen fuel for vehicles could be built in Exeter by 2026, it has been revealed.

     The Exeter H2 Hub consortium, which is behind the plans, said it could supply fuel for vehicles owned by utility companies, councils and the public.

     It said it planned to apply for government support “to make hydrogen refuelling a reality for the region”….

     As always, it’s an investment, not a cost (the article doesn’t tell us how much it will cost the taxpayer):

     …Hydrogen developer, Tower Group, said the UK needed more investment in hydrogen infrastructure.

     Alex King, CEO of Tower Group, which is leading the consortium, added: “If we are going to truly level up the country and deliver on the promises of net zero, then we must accelerate our e…

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117. “Safety concerns over fuel site for hydrogen buses”

     https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c80ze58yxnlo

     “Hydrogen-fuelled buses due to be serving Crawley and Gatwick are unable to operate because of a planning delay due to safety concerns.

     A service operated by Metrobus was launched last summer, but only up to 10 buses out of a fleet of 20 can operate each day because a new fuel store cannot be used.

     The hydrogen refuelling station requires hazardous substances approval from Crawley Borough Council, but the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has advised against the application due to “sufficiently high” risks.

     Go-Ahead, which owns Metrobus, said it needed to convince the HSE and partners that the facility is safe.

     In a submission to council planners, HSE said it “concluded that the risks to the surrounding population arising from the proposed operation(s) are sufficiently high to justify advising against the granting of hazardous substances consent on grounds of safety”.

     A HSE spokesman said: “Our detailed public safety assessment for the Crawley bus hydrogen filling station identified that hydrogen would be stored close to surrounding populations, including a nearby school.

     “Our response to Crawley Borough Council (acting as the Hazardous Substances Authority) was to advise against the application.…”…”

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