Overselling of hydrogen has ‘tarnished’ sector

Overselling of hydrogen by its champions has “tarnished” the fledgling sector, a heating expert has warned.

Dr Richard Lowes, senior associate at The Regulatory Assistance Project NGO, told a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Energy Costs at the House of Commons that there has been a “really strong over-selling of hydrogen” over the last five years.

This includes claims that switching over to hydrogen will involve “no change” for end users and that it could be cheaper than natural gas, he said: “That’s been unhelpful for everyone. That has led to the sectors that need it being damaged because there are places that really, really desperately need hydrogen and it’s being tarnished by this overselling expectation that it will be very cheap and available.”

Lowes also told the meeting that it is a “paradox” that the sectors most likely to need hydrogen are currently reluctant to embrace it while the low carbon gas is being pushed aggressively in other fields where it will be less energy efficient than electrification, like home heating.

Pointing to how the ceramics industry is currently shunning hydrogen because it is still too expensive, he said: “The end users which are asking for it don’t often need it.”

This was in contrast to the interest being displayed by more potentially “inefficient” uses of hydrogen as a source of energy compared to electrification, such as home heating and personal transport, Lowes said: “They’re asking for it because it can maintain supply chains, assets, business models and so on, whereas the sectors that need it the most don’t want it.

“We’ve got the sectors that don’t necessarily need it asking for it and the sectors that do need it not asking for it and that is a paradox.

“The priority surely needs to be from a cost-effective, policy approach, putting the hydrogen where it makes most financial sense,” he said, pointing as examples to sectors that currently need hydrogen and will always do so, like fertiliser and fossil fuel refining.

He also said that not all industry would require hydrogen but only those that rely on very high temperatures in their processes, such as glass manufacturing.

“There aren’t loads of factories randomly dotted around the country on a gas pipe reliant on that gas for whatever they’re doing.

“It’s not as simple as an industry has to end because there’s not going to be a gas pipe there anymore.”

The Exeter University fellow also said assumptions that electrolysers producing green hydrogen will be able to take advantage of excess wind energy, which would otherwise be wasted, are not taking account of the “competing” demands for this source of power.

“We will be using more electricity in any case and hydrogen demand will be competing, just like everything else. Other people will be demanding that product.”

Mark Crowther, technical director of Kiwa Gastec, rebutted the argument that the case for hydrogen should be assessed purely on the basis of whether it is the most efficient use of electricity.

“I’d much rather make hydrogen when the wind blows and the sun shines and then use it when you require it,” he said.

“There’s none of the wild, excessive low or high prices of electricity and it’s because hydrogen is a nice, storable product.”

The meeting took place midway through Hydrogen Week, which also saw SGN announce the UK’s first hydrogen training facility for gas engineers.

The gas distribution company and Fife College are building the facility in Levenmouth, Fife, where SGN is hosting the world’s first green hydrogen home heating trial.

The college will be able to train up to 200 engineers who will be able to work on the H100 Fife trial.