Paul Homewood
OCTOBER 3, 2021
Homeowners who refuse to take part in a hydrogen energy trial will be forcibly cut off by gas network operators, under Government plans to test green heating alternatives.
Residents in one village will begin the pilot scheme by 2025 to help the Government assess whether hydrogen gas can be used as a low-carbon alternative for heating homes across the country.
Ministers insisted the powers to enter people’s homes and switch off their gas would only be used as a “last resort” if the homeowners had refused to engage with any other options.
A consultation, which ended this week, suggests the Government will seek powers to allow gas distribution networks to enter homes if their owners do not wish to take part in the trial, in order to safely switch them off from the gas grid.
Current powers enable network operators to enter premises for a variety of purposes, including for suspected gas leaks or inspecting pipes and fittings.
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This report highlights a very real problem. When whole towns are switched over to hydrogen, it will obviously be very dangerous if some houses are not converted. Hence the draconian powers needed.
But the article includes one noteworthy comment:
It will cost around £22 billion to make the gas distribution network hydrogen-ready, according to 2018 analysis by the business department, and the costs of hydrogen are expected to be around three times that of natural gas.
As I have often pointed out, hydrogen costs an awful lot more than gas. The three times comment is probably based on mainly steam reforming, which itself emits almost as much carbon dioxide as burning natural gas in the first place.
And “three times” will mean heating bills rising by about £1000 a year.
As usual, the commenters are virtually all critical. But why do these issues always get reported by the dopey Emma Gatten, who has Environmental Editor should be writing about trees and rivers, not energy matters.
If they were covered by the Political Staff, they might a more critical coverage.
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Well, at least burning hydrogen doesn’t produce any green house gases.
/sarc
If they are being legally compelled to do this then the utility company doing it should pay all expenses for installation, equipment and indemnify all customers forced to participate. Thats only fair. The left is all about being fair, aren’t they?
God all mighty or in this case renewables almighty. The U.K. can barely keep the lights on and at ridiculous cost. Now it is going to keep their cars running by 20……? whenever it is and now it’s going to heat their homes by some process that is going to be more energy inefficient. Magic stuff these renewables.
What’s the over/under on when these whole crazy schemes collapse under their own weight? Germany and the UK are already having to shut down manufacturing, and Winter isn’t here yet. And this is without adding EVs and heat pumps to the system. One day all of this just comes to a stop (Houston: we’ve got a problem).
A couple of times lately we’ve been told they came within a minute of grid collapse. When that finally happens, it will take months to “build it back”. Then the elites won’t have to wonder if the plebes have guns or not. All it will take is pitchforks and Molotov cocktails.
No one recognized the models in the stock photo I chose for the headline image.
Do those models in the stock photo I chose look familiar?
Funny, Charles.
If the system is 100% hydrogen there are issues. Among them are hydrogen odorization so people can smell leaks is difficult, small leaks are hard to detect, and hydrogen burns with an almost invisible flame. Additionally, hydrogen does not exist on earth as a free gas. This means it takes more energy to produce than it provides. Politicians are more than willing to waste other peoples’ money on projects in hopes of eliminating an non-existent problem.
“When whole towns are switched over to hydrogen, it will obviously be very dangerous if some houses are not converted.”
Really?
” Hence the draconian powers needed.”
Leftists always need draconian powers.
That is a tyical eco loon lie it’s not dangerous it’s just there is only one set of pipes so if someone says no you have two choices 1)provide a new pipe to them or 2) Turn them off. The second option is cheaper so use draconian powers to force the issue and lie about the reason.
I lived in the UK during the fuel shortages in the 1970’s. It’s not fun during winter without hot water, cooking and heating. Seems like BoJo is listening to his eco, Marxists, nutter wife again.
Is this going to be referred to as the Hindenberg Experiment? /s
What? Too soon?
The people who should be required to engage in this testing first, ahead of the maundering crowds, are politicians and their supporters.
You can smell natural gas leaking, because it has a chemical added to it (at least it does over here in USA) that makes a leak noticeable. Hydrogen? Not so much.
Not too soon
I think Hindenburg is the name of the first town where this will be tried.
Strange coincidence that
Now that is very strange. I was only thinking about the blimp named Hindenberg. Maybe there really are no coincidences.
In my late 20s, as a graduate chemist, I was asked to take a year to manage a new pilot plant for converting ilmenite to synthetic rutile. This happened in a fluidised bed reactor vessel with chlorine has at 1050 degrees C an a couple of atmospheres pressure was pumped through the mineral grains of ilmenite.
The pilot plant design called for 10 tonnes a day of chlorine, which we all know as a dangerous gas used in trench warfare (at levels similar to our rate of use). We were on a small hill nest to a small town of a few thousand people. Safety was forever in our minds. It was not an impossible scenario that the whole town (including my young family) could be killed if we (I) made a bad mistake.
When people mention widespread use of hydrogen as a fuel, knowing about its difficult containment and potential for explosion, my mind goes to the chlorine escape scenario. That was 50 years ago, but I still awake from time to time from troubled sleep in which that nightmare becomes real.
I feel pity for those who know so little about risk and chemistry and alternative fuels that they cheer for hydrogen. Cheer if you like, but be aware that you have made a choicd that can come back to haunt you evermore. Geoff S
Hydrogen is a very small molecule. It is also very light. When there is a small hole which would not leak methane, it could leak H2. Any H2 leaked into a house will rise to the highest point of the ceiling.
Will they be running new double contained H2 piping inside all these homes?
What about hydrogen embrittlement of the piping itself. How will this be handled?
No it will rapidly diffuse throughout the house. Regarding the hydrogen embrittlement it will likely behave in the same way as when they distributed 50% H2 gas to every home in the country until the 1970s.