New fuel, existing network

In energy, legacy is always a brake on change. Over 20 million existing buildings in the U.K. rely on natural gas (methane) for heating, hot water and cooking. Much of heavy industry still relies on methane or other solid fuels as a feedstock for generating high operating temperatures. Renewable electricity isn’t a practical substitute for many of these hard-to-decarbonise applications, but hydrogen could be a better solution as it produces water and heat, but no carbon dioxide at the point of use, unlike methane.



To kickstart the market, there are already some obvious ways to introduce the fuel into the existing gas network. Some adaptation would be required, but hydrogen can be blended up to 20% into a methane supply with no need to change existing domestic appliances, and market mechanisms could be established by government regulation to help encourage the fuel’s adoption.



At peak times, the U.K.’s gas network can move six times more energy than the electricity network. It offers considerable existing storage and is very efficient and resilient with few unplanned interruptions to supply. So, it makes perfect sense to reuse as much of this infrastructure as possible, whilst replacing methane with hydrogen, rather than try and replicate this functionality in an entirely electric energy system.