IN DETAIL: GREEN ENERGY
Pioneering a Hydrogen Energy Future The UK has set itself an ambitious target to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050. One way to work towards this is to switch to a cleaner, greener form of energy such as hydrogen. – By Mark Horsley
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rime Minister Boris Johnson has unveiled his longawaited Ten-Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, setting out the approach government will take to accelerate the UK’s path to Net Zero. Its ambitious target – to achieve Net Zero emissions in the UK by 2050 – poses a complex challenge. The question of how to decarbonise domestic heat, when 85 per cent of UK homes rely on the gas network to keep them warm, is yet to be answered. Domestic heat is today responsible for around onethird of the UK’s total emissions. But the gas network could be repurposed to carry a cleaner, greener gas – ensuring customers maintain all the benefits of a reliable, resilient grid capable of meeting a one in 20-year weather event – without the disruption of retrofitting new technology. Hydrogen offers the potential for unlocking this opportunity. It produces no carbon when burned, simply heat and water as by-products. Offering further pathways towards cleaner power generation and transport, it’s also a major opportunity for investment to create and support tens of thousands of green jobs and skills training for young people and future generations. A hydrogen network lays the foundation for a hydrogen economy, with our world-leading infrastructure enabling new technologies and creating new markets. The UK is already undergoing a huge national programme of replacing its old metallic gas mains with new plastic pipes capable of safely and securely transporting hydrogen.
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An aerial view of a gas site in Yorkshire
Through a greener gas grid, hydrogen could be carried from production and storage sites to heavy industry, power plants and domestic homes and delivered to transport refuelling facilities for heavy goods vehicles, buses, ships and cars. Mr Johnson’s plan commits to the production of hydrogen for transport, home heating and industry. At NGN, we believe repurposing the network offers the best possible solution for our customers: providing the most cost-effective, reliable and least disruptive pathway to Net Zero home heating.
H21 As the gas distributor for the North of England, we’ve been working with industry partners to develop a vision of a hydrogen network for the last five years. NGN is the lead partner in H21, a suite of pioneering projects, aimed at proving the existing UK gas network can be converted to transport 100 per cent hydrogen. The first study, H21 Leeds City Gate, proved that conversion of a major city was both technically possible and economically feasible. Since then, H21 has grown into a collaborative programme involving all the UK gas distribution and
