Hydrogen as a False Low-Carbon ‘Solution’

By Lee Towers

The Labour Government’s plans for a low-carbon transition are not fit for purpose. This factsheet outlines what hydrogen is and why it is not an efficient or cheap solution to home heating. 

Hydrogen should be seen as energy carrier – like a battery.

It can be made in three main ways – so-called grey, blue and green hydrogen:

When you transform energy like this it is inefficient and there are losses – this means fossil fuel derived grey hydrogen is worse than just burning coal or gas. 

Using carbon capture and storage (CCS) – blue hydrogen – would be better but there are no commercial technologies currently available despite billions of investment (see CCS fact sheet).

Finally, there are losses when using electricity from renewable wind or solar – green hydrogen. These losses during electrolysis, compression for end use, and in the case of use in the home, via boilers.

This means an alternative of heat pumps and necessary energy efficiency upgrades would be a much better and ultimately cheaper option for homeowners and better for the environment through less demand for land and resources (see diagram below for details).

Overview

There is perhaps a place for green hydrogen in hard-to-decarbonise sectors such as steel manufacture.

However, current policy frameworks do not clearly distinguish between types (grey, blue or green) especially if hydrogen is traded across borders. This raises another issue of green colonialism, with the European Union planning to expand it’s hydrogen production significantly within its borders but also in ‘low cost regions’ beyond. This largely refers to Northern Africa and even if it is really green hydrogen there is an injustice here, as this is both inefficient but also extracting energy from communities that have either no or unreliable electricity supply. So, any hydrogen used should be produced in the place it is consumed. 

Finally, green hydrogen should not be used for home heating or transport as there are better alternatives – i.e. electrify as much as possible (i.e. public transport and home heating). As the image above makes clear, to cover domestic heating needs with green hydrogen rather than heat pumps, we would need around 5.5 times more installed capacity, km² of ocean or land, and electricity. If we have learned anything in the last few years about our extractive energy system it is that ordinary people that will be paying for this excess. This means if we choose this expensive hydrogen home heating average energy costs will rise and it will make it more difficult and expensive to deal with energy poverty.   

For more information see the Hydrogen Science Coalition