
UK hydrogen heating trial canceled after residents protest
July 17, 2023A Hydrogen Village Pilot intended for Whitby won’t be moving forward.
Whitby, a village in Elsmere Port, was to be used to trial hydrogen heating and become the UK’s first hydrogen-powered community. However, the Hydrogen Village Pilot for the English village has been abandoned due to strong objections from Whitby residents.
The goal was to test the suitability of replacing natural gas with hydrogen for domestic homes.
The natural gas in Whitby was to be switched to pure hydrogen starting from 2025, with the objective to test how suitable it would be to replace natural gas with hydrogen in domestic homes.
According to the BBC, Energy Minister Lord Martin Callanan confirmed that Whitby would not be used as part of gas firm Cadent’s Hydrogen Village Pilot due to safety concerns.
“After listening to the views of residents it’s clear that there is no strong local support,” said Lord Callanan. “Therefore Whitby will no longer be considered as the location for the UK’s first hydrogen village trial.”
The BBC noted that while the UK government has not yet formally announced the cancellation of the residential hydrogen heating trial in Whitby, this is expected to happen in the coming weeks.
The proposed hydrogen heating trial left many Whitby residents feeling like test subjects.
Although not all residents were against the trial, the many that were have been extremely worried about their safety. Some also felt that the trial was being forced upon them without their consent, making them feel like they were being treated like “lab rats”.
“It is clear that asking people to try experimental new forms of energy consumption for their homes will not work unless basic questions about safety, efficacy and cost can be answered from the start,” said Justin Madders, Labour MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston.
Madders added that leaving people with the impression that the trial would happen without their consent “sent entirely the wrong message” about how climate change needs to be tackled.
Another trial is planned for Redcar.
Aside from Whitby, another hydrogen heating trial for homes has been proposed for Redcar in Teesside, where the aim will be to install hydrogen boilers in approximately 2,000 homes.
Though this trial is likely to progress, Redcar residents are calling for an independent vote on whether it should go ahead.
If it is given the green light, the Redcar hydrogen heating trail will be carried out by Northern Gas Networks.
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I would love the for hydrogen heating/cooking to be trialled in my area (Cornwall), especially as boilers are already available. I’m sure this is the way forward. We cannot rely on electricity to power everything, we don’t have the capacity to generate enough, and we don’t want to be reliant on other countries.
Many years ago I ran the oxygen generator on a submarine. I have always been a supporter of hydrogen as a clean and renewable energy source. Hydrogen is awesome! We can use it in our cars, generate electricity and heat our homes. The possibilities are unlimited and without polluting. People need to get over the Hindenburg. Imagine if it was full of gasoline or propane. The disaster would have been much worse. Hydrogen is more safe and nonpolluting.
How many other things do governments force without consent that the people aren’t happy about, or worse still don’t know about? This beggars belief, hydrogen is the way forward and could potentially lower their heating bills. I wonder, is it actually what the residents want, or don’t want, or is it the BBC pushing the agenda of one of their donors?!
Stakeholder consultation has already been a key word in development assistance and it holds equally in any human endeavour. Whitby people deserve to be consulted and not just informed.
But that said, moving to net-zero emissions by 2050 is not possible without hydrogen, especially green hydrogen. It is therefore equally important that pilots such as the one planned for in Whitby are run to affirm our global temperature goal needed to stabilise our climate system.
We will perish by refusing these test runs, and may be sooner.
Question: Why push a string uphill? Hydrogen burns at over 900 F. Most people heat their homes to 72 F. That can be accomplished with 160 deg F hot water which does not burn and does not have the fear or concerns that people have. No special piping, equipment, technicians and potentials concerns and anxiety are eliminated. Hot water in a pipe: simple. Burn the hydrogen at a substation away from people and controlled by the utility with special technicians, create electricity and hot water. Pump the hot water to the resident. Add an induction stove and there is no need for natural gas, nor hydrogen in a personal residence, plus you are creating a microgrid which increases reliability.
Fine if the distance between the consumers is minimal. If not, then much heat will be lost in the distribution system. Not quite sure what goes on at your substation. Are you suggesting that we have local substations which are manned by experts. These stations will burn H2 to get hot Water (constant discharge temperature) and presumably use cells to convert some H2 to charge batteries which will then need to be converted to 240 V alternating current prior to to transmission to the houses using the existing cables? Microgrid would be somewhat less reliable that the National Electricity Grid don’t you think? 160F water in a 1m underground pipe could be Ok for the houses near the Substation, but a few hundred metres away; well?
Why change a system that already works?. I have gas to my house, and plenty of hot water. If hydrogen can replace the gas my eventual wish would be to have a box outside that would make the hydrogen, using the power from my solar panels, to feed directly into my boiler