Hydrogen-powered emission-free train set to replace diesel trains

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Mike Foster, Chief Executive of the boiler industry’s trade association, the Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA), has said that switching the gas network to hydrogen will help the UK reach net zero. He stated the UK is already ahead of Germany in terms of the scale of its ambition in this area and is implementing green domestic heating technology at the quickest rate. He said: “We’ve already successfully trialled hydrogen blending, we are now bending in a live trial in a village near Gateshead. “

The blend is a way to significantly reduce emissions with no change, which will, in turn, leave time for the groundwork to be laid for a seamless switch to 100 percent hydrogen later on.”

Hydrogen blending refers to the process of altering natural gas boilers, which burn fossil fuels to provide heat, and instead by injecting hydrogen into the gas grid along with the existing natural gas.

It could save around six million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year according to the Energy Networks Association.

Mr Foster added: “We’ve also got hydrogen homes burning on 100 percent hydrogen on boilers supplied by British companies and we have plans to have a hydrogen-only gas main supplying homes with 100 percent hydrogen.

“We have made sense of coming up with a system that uses the infrastructure that goes into 85 percent of people’s homes.

“I would expect the vast majority who are on the gas grid to switch to hydrogen.

“Germany has a similar climate to ours and similar heat requirements and are starting to move towards hydrogen-ready appliances.

“No country is ahead on the domestic heating front as much as the UK.”

Last year, the European Commission adopted a new dedicated strategy on hydrogen in Europe.

It explores how producing and using “green” hydrogen can help decarbonise the EU economy in a cost-effective way, in line with the European Green Deal.

Germany has also vowed to phase out coal by 2038, compared to the UK’s impressive 2024 target.

What’s more, the Government has now published its strategy to “kick start a world-leading hydrogen economy” in the UK.

Laying out the plans, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said it will support over 9,000 UK jobs and unlock £4billion worth of investment by 2030.

And Mr Foster agreed.

DON’T MISS 
Galileo replacement gets green light after UK snubbed EU return [REVEAL] 
Gen Z and millennials most likely to give up meat to help planet [REPORT] 
Why Scotland could have independence vote by 2023 under Green deal [ANALYSIS]

He said: “The creation of jobs is a welcome aspect of the strategy but will also play a part in the preservation of jobs for over 120,000 gas engineers working across the UK.

“The UK’s Hydrogen Strategy represents a huge step in the right direction for the introduction of the technology, something the heating industry is rallying behind in the decarbonisation process.”

Mike Foster and the EUA recently brokered a deal between four major boiler manufacturers Worcester Bosch, Vaillant, Baxi and Ideal who made a price-promise hydrogen ready boilers at no extra cost to the consumer.

The Climate Change Committee, which published its sixth carbon budget in December, warned that a hydrogen boiler replacement would cost the consumer £100 more per appliance than a natural gas boiler.

But the new price guarantee could actually save the UK around £2.3billion as there are 23 million gas boilers in British homes.

Source: Read Full Article