Hydrogen village trials spiked

Plans for a hydrogen village trial have been scrapped by government.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Desnz) has announced that it will not be proceeding with Northern Gas Networks’ (NGN) proposed hydrogen village trial in Redcar.

It was the only viable village trial left in the running after the government also rejected Cadent’s bid for a hydrogen village trial in Cheshire because of a lack of local support.

The government said that it had “decided not to proceed with a hydrogen trial in Redcar, as the main source of hydrogen will not be available”.

The project was due to be supplied principally by BP’s proposed HyGreen Teeside production facility, which was in the running for a contract through the government’s hydrogen allocation round. However, the announcement on Thursday (14 December) of successful projects for the first round of the scheme did not include HyGreen.

Juliet Phillips, senior policy advisor at think tank ECG, described the decision as “another nail in the coffin for pipe dreams of hydrogen heating”.

She added: “With the Redcar trail scrapped, it will be nearly impossible for the government to make a positive decision to permit nationwide hydrogen heating in 2026.”

However, in a short announcement published alongside a UK Hydrogen Strategy update to market, the government said it “recognises the potential role of hydrogen in home heating”.

It will instead assess evidence from the H100 neighbourhood trial being conducted by SGN in Fife to inform its 2026 decision on how hydrogen could be used for home heating. It will also look to examples across Europe.

The H100 trial will supply hydrogen to 300 homes and is significantly smaller than the proposed village trials which involved around 2,000 homes and businesses. Speaking to Utility Week earlier this year, SGN chief executive Mark Wild said that while the H100 trial was a good start, the village trials were “really important” for the future of hydrogen for home heating.

A statement on the Redcar Hydrogen Community page – set up by the project’s backers – expresses disappointment in the government’s decision but concedes that there “will not be adequate low carbon hydrogen available” to support the trial.

It adds: “We know this news will be a disappointing to the residents and businesses who expressed their support for the trial, as well as the wider community who were set to benefit from the investment and jobs that the project would bring.

“While we are disappointed that we will not get the opportunity to explore the potential hydrogen has for heating homes and businesses, we are pleased that the government will continue to explore hydrogen for heat through an approved project in Fife, where around 300 homes are due to start using hydrogen.”

Sarah Williams, director of regulation, asset strategy & HS&E at Wales & West Utilities, a partner on the Redcar project, told Utility Week: “We welcome the government’s continued commitment to hydrogen in the UK as announced today, including the support for blending hydrogen into the gas networks and the potential role of hydrogen for home heating.

“We are working closely as a sector to reach net zero, and are supporting the government with the necessary evidence to enable a future decision on hydrogen for heating and exploring how hydrogen can replace the critical functions gas serves now, preserving thousands of businesses and creating hundreds of new jobs.”

Concerns that the village trial could be axed have been mounting in recent weeks, with public opposition to the proposal growing.

Last week, Redcar and Cleveland Council’s leader wrote to energy secretary Claire Coutinho warning that opposition to the hydrogen village trial is “growing” in the local area.

Alec Brown, who heads the Labour-run Teesside administration, called on the energy security and net zero secretary to gauge the extent of support for the trial in the village where it is due to take place.

Redcar also saw a protest march in October against the proposed trial.

While the government has axed the village trial it has pushed forward with a number of other hydrogen-related initiatives.

Ministers have announced their decision to support hydrogen blending in certain scenarios – following a consultation on the preferred methods. However, the announcement adds that while “blending may help achieve the UK’s net zero ambitions [it] would have a limited and temporary role as the UK moves away from the use of natural gas”.

Coutinho has also backed 11 electrolysis projects, estimated to deliver 125MW of green hydrogen for businesses.

Coutinho added: “Hydrogen presents a massive economic opportunity for the UK, unlocking over 12,000 jobs and up to £11 billion of investment by 2030.

“Today’s announcement represents the largest number of commercial scale green hydrogen production projects announced at once anywhere in Europe.

“These 11 major new hydrogen projects across the UK will create over 700 jobs and deliver new opportunities from Plymouth in England to Cromarty in Scotland.”

Ministers have also opened a second round of funding that companies can apply for to support their projects and published a production roadmap, which sets out the government’s plan for future allocation rounds in 2025 and 2026.

This includes plans to boost hydrogen capacity up to 1.5GW across these rounds, and award funding to projects to help deliver up to 4GW of CCUS-enabled, or blue, hydrogen and 6GW of green hydrogen by 2030.