The Government shelved plans for a “hydrogen town” pilot project in May, which aimed to test hydrogen use in residential heating and cooking for 10,000 homes. The primary reason cited for this decision was the lack of a main hydrogen supply.

Westwood Energy notes that similar trials in Whitby, Ellesmere Port, and Redcar, Teesside, were also cancelled in July 2023 for the same reason. Despite these setbacks, the Government has reaffirmed its commitment to making strategic decisions about the role of hydrogen in heating decarbonisation by 2026. This will be informed by evidence gathered from the H100 Fife trial in Scotland, a 300-home project that has faced its own supply chain challenges, delaying completion until the summer of 2025.

Last month, Germany’s Ministry of Transport (BMDV) disbanded its hydrogen unit and suspended all hydrogen-related funding following a nepotism scandal involving a senior civil servant and a constitution court ruling that prevented the use of €60bn of unused COVID-related debt for the Climate and Transformation Fund (CTF).

The use of hydrogen to decarbonise residential heating has been a contentious issue. Critics point to low efficiency, high projected costs, and safety concerns compared to direct electrification and heat pump alternatives. Bosch Executive Vice-President Stefan Thiel recently stated that hydrogen should be reserved for decarbonising heavy industry, aviation, and commercial vehicles, with no view of its widespread use in the heating market. This stance is particularly notable given that Bosch’s British arm has been advocating for hydrogen’s use in heating to date.

According to Westwood Energy’s Hydrogen project database, residential and commercial heating represents only 1.2 per cent of the cumulative pipeline capacity for electrolytic projects in Northwest Europe by 2030. Of this capacity, 63 per cent is located in the UK, with the remainder tied to the recently stalled Aquaventus initiative in Germany. Based on the current pipeline, hydrogen is expected to account for only a small fraction of potential demand for electrolytic hydrogen projects in the region, with this share likely to diminish further.

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