Second hydrogen village plan abandoned
The proposed hydrogen heating village trial in Redcar will not now go ahead. The government has said that the main source of hydrogen supply will not be available.
It’s the second location where plans to trial supplying hydrogen to homes have been halted, after it was announced in July 2023 that Whitby in Ellesmere Port would no longer be considered.
The government says it still plans to decide in 2026 on whether (and how) low-carbon hydrogen can contribute to decarbonising home heating. A neighbourhood trial in Fife (H100) as well as similar trials in Europe will help to inform this decision, it says, and acknowledges NGN’s early work on the Redcar trial in providing evidence on building survey data, grid conversion plans and consumer research.
The announcement came as the government published its Hydrogen Strategy Delivery Update, which sets out the steps taken so far, along with a new UK Hydrogen Economy Roadmap. In the update, the government continues to back hydrogen, stating that it “could be a replacement for some buildings currently heated by natural gas, providing an additional option to heat pumps and heat networks”.
It says it’s supporting the gas network companies in community trials of 100% hydrogen for heating to provide evidence of the feasibility, cost, convenience and consumer acceptance of conversion. SGN’s H100 trial in Fife will supply an expected 300 homes with electrolytic hydrogen through a new network and is expected to be up and running in the second half of 2024.
