‘Hydrogen town’ plan cancelled after protests over forced switch from natural gas
By Paul Homewood
h/t Philip Bratby
The Net Zero disaster lurches from one crisis to another:
The Energy Secretary has scrapped plans for a pilot “hydrogen town” after a wave of protests against earlier trials.
Claire Coutinho has shelved proposals to force thousands of homes and businesses to replace their natural gas supplies with hydrogen by 2030 to test the fuel’s viability.
Aberdeen, Scunthorpe, and two Welsh towns were among those being considered for wholesale conversion to hydrogen for heating.
It was meant to be a trial run to test the use of low-carbon hydrogen as a replacement for natural gas, which was being considered as part of the UK’s drive to reach net zero by 2050.
However, ministers have been forced into a rethink following a wave of protests in two smaller communities – Redcar in Yorkshire and Whitby, near Ellesmere Port – that had been earmarked as testbed “hydrogen villages”. Both proposed trials were ultimately abandoned.
Energy efficiency minister Lord Martin Callanan said on Thursday: “We have decided not to progress work on a hydrogen town pilot until after 2026 decisions on the role of hydrogen for heating.
“Heat pumps and heat networks will be the main route to cutting household emissions for the foreseeable future.”
The decision undermines the Government’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, which was launched by then-prime minister Boris Johnson in 2020, and its 2021 UK Hydrogen Strategy, published by then-energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.
Those plans envisaged a neighbourhood-level hydrogen heating scheme by 2023, a village scale trial by 2025, with an entire town being converted to hydrogen by the late 2020s. None of this will now happen.
Several studies have criticised the plans, saying hydrogen will only have a small role to play in heating homes and other buildings in the future.
Last year, the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) recommended the Government should not support the rollout of hydrogen heating.
It said the hydrogen would have to be made with natural gas – a process that generates emissions – and would cost more than heat pumps, the main alternative.
I love this comment from Colin Belshaw:
Very sensible decision.
And this statement is sheer bloody nonsense: "Hydrogen’s value lies in having a high energy density, so it can power anything from homes to heavy vehicles," because . . . it actually goes like this:
To produce 1 tonne of hydrogen through the electrolysis of water requires 52.5MWh of electricity (including compression) and, the burning of 1 tonne of hydrogen will generate 15MWh. Therefore . . . ENERGY INVESTED is 3.5x GREATER than ENERGY RETURNED, which is . . . really bloody brilliant.
And for this to have any twisted credibility in our idiotic virtue-signalling world, the electrical supply for the electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen would obviously have to come from “green” wind and solar generating facilities.
But over the last 12 months, wind and solar combined generation provided 10.86GW, this from a wind and solar combined installed capacity of 45.7GW . . . which was 23.8% of installed capacity – the “load factor.”
So, if you want to deliver 1GW of electricity from wind and solar generating facilities, with a load factor of 23.8%, those facilities will have to have an installed capacity of 4.20GW – an “overbuild factor” of 4.20.
In summary:
To make hydrogen by electrolysis requires 3.5x the energy that will be gained from using that hydrogen, and to generate the electricity needed for that electrolysis, the installed capacity of wind and solar generating facilities will have to be 4.20x greater than the electricity actually needed.
You get the picture, I trust – to generate electrical energy through wind and solar, and using that energy to make hydrogen, would be an exercise in nothing less than . . . profligate stupidity.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
I wish they’d stop talking about‘emissions
it’s carbon dioxide they are on about. And where is the hydrogen to come from?
It said the hydrogen would have to be made with natural gas
So totally pointless
I wish they’d stop talking.
Bravo!
They may be cancelling some projects, but not Carbon Capture and Storage. Is it me not understanding, or is this a crazy waste of our money. https://www.engadget.com/the-worlds-largest-direct-carbon-capture-plant-just-went-online-172447811.html
… or is this a crazy waste of our money.
It is indeed crazy for several reasons, one of which is that there is no proven justification for the expenditure.
I have read (on here I think) that 1 part per million of carbon dioxide = 7.821 billion metric tons, so yes it is a crazy waste of money when all they are going to remove is 36,000 tons per year. Not that it needs removing anyway.
a crazy waste of our money
The objective of the climate change movement is dekulakization. Wasting your money.
Dekulakisation is a side effect.
This is an unneeded operation designed to make rich Swiss folk even richer.
Follow the money, it seems.
Auto
rich Swiss folk even richer
Your logic sux. Money is not a motivator to the rich. They already have all they can use.
Eliminating your money, hence, your freedom, is the objective.
I agree that it is more about power and the spread of Globalist Fascism – apart from lacking the tubthumping delivery style of the Nazis, watching Gates talking about how he will use mRNA for everything is scary.
The only flaw I can see is that if you destroy people’s income by removing their jobs and increasing their cost of living by hundreds of percent not the current inflation rate, who will be buying goods and services from their companies? Their wealth is tied up in the value of their businesses which will crash.
Gezza, the decadent will destroy that which keeps them alive. See: JSO, ER. Cirrusly, two old ladies kept alive by oil attack the Magna Carta to stop the oil that keeps them alive.
Totalitarians, be they fascist or communist, hate freedom. To the point they will even accept some personal harm to rid other people of their freedom. Note how Western elites coddle the Muslims, whose stated goal is to kill them. The elites think they can use the Muslims to help eradicate the middle-class, but will still somehow be able to control them to keep from being killed themselves.
The word “Emissions” is chosen because of the negative impact
compared to “life giving plant food”
I suppose “emissions” is marginally better than calling CO2 a “pollutant” which I think started with President Obama but has been picked up by ignorant politicians in Britain
As for the claim that “hydrogen’s value is its high energy density” this just illustrates the total scientific illiteracy of Govt ministers.
Hydrogen has a particularly low energy density which is why it has to be compressed to some 15,000 psi to get a reasonable amount of energy into a reasonable amount of space
If you burn hydrogen, you get water vapour and water vapour is a potent greenhouse gas alledged to account for approx 50% of the greenhouse effect. Far more potent than C02 Surley if there is mass use of hydrogen and the concern of the ‘climate scientsist’ and snow flake activists is the greenhouse effect, isnt the use of hydrogen more problematic than the use of fossil fuels?
Actually it is even dafter than that. Hydrogen in the atmosphere ( it WILL escape) is an indirect greenhouse gas and has been given a GWP “global warming potential” of Eleven (where CO2 is the benchmark of one) by none other than the IPCC. So fugitive hydrogen on its own is eleven times worse than the equivalent CO2. Not a lot of people know that!
No, that’s correct, but a lot of people & activists are silly. I’ve been seeing too many influencers who ARE silly and it seems that that’s the only way they can get noticed and make money out of it.
To saighdear…bit of a longshot but are you (or anyone else who reads this) aware of Cassley Power Station on Loch Shin? Here is a aerial image with the red kite indicating the associated Met Office weather station.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/58%C2%B010'04.8%22N+4%C2%B043'44.6%22W/@58.1680938,-4.7301208,287m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d58.168006!4d-4.729061?entry=ttu
It regularly appears as a daily high temperature record site of the Met Offices “daily extremes”. They claim this is a top quality CIMO Grade 1 site but really? Surely the 33kV transformers and directly overhead cables as well as Foehn winds make it unreliable. Here is a photo of the site which if you zoom in on you can see the white Stevenson Screen to the right of the power station by the transmission pole.
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/951943
As well as this interesting reference
https://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst89906.html
I am currently compiling a dossier about the inadequacy of Met Office data so any help identifying sites will help. Thanks.
On top of that, the numpties also seem unaware that burning H2 in air produces NOx – more than the equivalent natural gas ‘cos H”‘s flame temp is higher.
Don’t forget hydrogen is also an ozone depleting gas too so it clearly can’t be used to replace natural gas in the existing gas grid as this is too leaky.
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/hydrogen-fuel-is-hostile-to-stratospheric-ozone-13247
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/760538/Hydrogen_atmospheric_impact_report.pdf = see pg 10
I think you will find that 90% of the so called greenhouse effect is due to water vapour. CO2 barely gets a look in.
I suppose the PTB have recognised the impossibility of getting enough electricity along the existing low voltage distribution (Smart Secure Electricity Systems) to charge EVs and run heat pumps, so are clutching at straws to use the existing gas distribution system in a green way. Just stick with natural gas, problem solved.
Gateshead (near me) have had hydrogen homes for the last few years, but not occupied. Quick search did not find any info on success/failure.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-9265251/Hydrogen-fuelled-homes-built-Gateshead.html
These stories are good and are spreading the word about the nonsense that net zero is. Problem is the mainstream political parties are all over invested in NZ although at least the Torys are now fraying at the edge.
A Hydrogen powered community sounds wonderful, so Green, so environmentally friendly, so virtuous!
The privilege to take advantage of this giant leap of technology should surely go to those proposing the project: the offices of the Dept. of Energy, in Central London.
I won’t complain.
They won’t! Same reason they won’t have battery cars or heat pumps or eat bugs
Given the sort of people the Welsh elect to the Synned surely they would relish such a trial.
I wonder what karma is in Welsh?
https://jacothenorth.net/blog/
Jac knows a thing or two about Welsh Labour and greenfoolery
Energy efficiency minister Lord Martin Callanan said on Thursday: “We have decided not to progress work on a hydrogen town pilot until after 2026 decisions on the role of hydrogen for heating.
Is Callanan going to jump ship to Labour then? Otherwise, good luck with still being in government in 2026.
Or perhaps they are going to give up the pretence and if there is a hung parliament – which I think is more likely than the polls show given there is no swing to Labour – that they will all join together as the Uniparty Government.
if there is a hung parliament
The concept of the LibDems and/or Greens holding the balance of power is alarming. Although the prospect of a Labour or Tory majority is also alarming; they are all incompetent.
Yes, our current politics is stuffed with lawyers and PPE Grads – not what you want if you need competent, subject experienced leadership
Callahan is another energy incompetent grifter trying to sell the square wheel to replace the round one
Callanan
There is a swing; it’s a swing away from all politicians.
In the Blackpool by-election, 80% of 2019 Conservative voters stayed away. Labour were only 14% down, thus winning but with fewer votes than they lost with in 2019.
And this was spun as a 26% swing.
“Whitby, near Ellesmere Port“.
I hadn’t known we had a second Whitby. Are the Fish and Chips there as good as in the Yorkshire one?
Another AGW hoax, net zero scam pyramid selling hatchet job by incompetent politicians on the taxpayer & consumer – you cannot push for a 100% renewable grid without sufficient and suitable storage (it will never happen) and intermittent power supplies are no good to mass produce hydrogen, so the whole ill thought out scheme should be binned, together with those peddling it
Another weird one I have just seen for the first time. Advanced Rock Weathering. They scatter silicate over agricultural land to encourage the natural process where rock absorbs Co2 and stores it safely for hundreds of thousands of years. Wow. This to help control Climate Change. I wonder why it has taken so long to think of this wonderful solution to a non problem. I wonder who pays or benefits from this one.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-enhanced-weathering-could-slow-climate-change-and-boost-crop-yields/
Have just watched pantomime clown Jim Dale on GB News.
Andrew Doyle is ten times smarter, but was very polite as Dale dug his own grave. Bob Ward is a nastier piece of work, he seems to have gone quiet. Dale’s use of the terms “denier” etc is extremely offensive, as used in his case by someone so stupid, despite his “40 years studying the weather”. What about the coldest April in memory where I live??????????????????
No degree, no physics, geology, astronomy, atmospheric physics, oceanography or maths/accounting/modelling skills:
https://newa.expert/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/E4323.pdf
Unlike John Kettley, who knows his stuff:
That’s a bit unfair, I quite liked watching Jim Dale taking Barbara Windsor’s temperature in Carry on Doctor.
watch the scam busting movie on YouTube “Climate crisis the movie( the cold truth) by Martin Durkin. Net Zero is a Ponzi scheme for the WEF et al.