UK ministers have pulled the plug on plans for a hydrogen trial in Redcar.
The primary reason cited is the unavailability of a crucial hydrogen source, dealing a blow to ambitions of integrating hydrogen into the nation’s energy mix.
This decision comes as the government recognises hydrogen’s potential in home heating.
Jess Ralston, an analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit believes hydrogen may only play a marginal role, if any, in the future of home heating.
Jess Ralston said: “It’s pretty clear that hydrogen will be a bit part player, if any role at all, in home heating in future. Everyone from government ministers to the National Infrastructure Commission accepts that maybe less so the gas industry.
“A minister has already called out their campaign of misinformation against the main alternative, heat pumps, but the reality is they work and are being installed in vast numbers in countries like France and the US.
“Unless the UK makes the shift away from gas heating, as the North Sea inevitably declines, we’ll simply become more dependent on foreign gas imports and the price they come at. The last two years show why that’s not a good idea.”
