Hydrogen blend heating trial kicks off in Gateshead village

Almost 670 homes, a school, and a handful of small businesses in a village near Gateshead have been receiving a proportion of hydrogen as part of their gas supplies for heating and cooking over the past fortnight, as part of pioneering trial which kicked off at the beginning of the month.

The HyDeploy project has seen hydrogen blended with conventional fossil fuel gas on the local public gas network in Winlaton in order to demonstrate the potential role such blended fuels could play in helping to reduce carbon emissions from the heating of homes and businesses across the UK.

The consortium leading the project - which is part funded via a £22.4m grant from Ofgem's Network Innovation Competition - revealed this week that the trial had kicked off at the beginning of August and homes have already been receiving the hydrogen blend ahead of residents being notified.

The project makes Winlaton the first community in the UK to receive a significant blend of hydrogen in their gas supply via the public gas network, as policymakers and energy companies continue to explore how best to decarbonise the country's heating systems.

It marks the beginning of 10-month pilot, which will see Winlaton residents, businesses, and a school receive a blend of up to 20 per cent hydrogen alongside conventional fossil fuel gas for heating. The blend reduces the carbon emissions associated with conventional heating systems, but without the need for any changes to resident's boilers, pipework or household appliances.

The project is being led by network operator Northern Gas Networks alongside Gas firm Cadent, green energy tech company Progressive Energy, hydrogen specialist ITM Power, and Keele University.

In order to carry out the pilot, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) granted HyDeploy an exemption to the UK's current upper limit of 0.1 per cent hydrogen in the UK gas network, after determining that it was safe to use a higher blend, according to Tim Harwood, head of programme management and H21 project director at Northern Gas Networks.

"The project will provide more vital evidence about the possibilities of blending hydrogen into the natural gas network across the UK, as a stepping-stone to decarbonising heat with no disruption to customers," he said. "We've engaged with the community of Winlaton over the past 18 months and, with the support of the council, undertaken safety checks on their appliances to reassure residents that they can continue to use their gas as normal whilst playing a vital role in the decarbonisation of the gas network."

A previous phase of the HyDeploy project that ended earlier this year had seen 100 homes and around 30 commercial buildings on a closed network at Keele University successfully use the hydrogen blend for a period of 18 months.

Heating is currently responsible for around a third of the UK's total carbon emissions, with the overwhelming majority of homes and businesses heated via the fossil fuel gas network. As such, decarbonising heating is widely regarded as one of the UK's biggest challenges on the pathway to net zero emissions, with heat pumps and hydrogen seen as the main alternatives.

The government is currently under significant pressure to come forward with its long awaited Heat and Buildings Strategy setting out a clear plan to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuel heating, with recent reports suggesting it is looking to phase out sales of conventional boilers by 2040.

Advocates of hydrogen technologies argue that blending hydrogen and fossil gas can help to curb emissions without any disruption for households ahead of the roll out of hydrogen-ready appliances that could run entirely on low carbon hydrogen. The news of the trial comes just days after a group of leading boiler manufacturers pledged to ensure all their new boilers can make the switch to run on hydrogen from 2025.

However, some experts have warned that the UK  is decades away from securing sufficient low carbon hydrogen supplies to run the entire gas grid on hydrogen, while also arguing that investment required to deliver a hydrogen grid is likely to prove prohibitive. As such, the government is facing growing calls to focus on accelerating the roll out of heat pumps as the primary means of decarbonising homes.