In a letter sent to Lord Callanan, Parliamentary under Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero yesterday (Wednesday 22 February), the Committee warns that if the current take-up rate continues, only half of the allocated budget will be used to help households switch to low-carbon heating systems and a healthy market of installers and manufacturers will not be in place in time to implement low-carbon heating policy measures smoothly.

In its key findings, it states hydrogen is “not a serious option for home heating” for the short to medium-term and misleading messages, including from the UK Government, are negatively affecting take-up of established low-carbon home heating technologies like heat pumps.

Upfront costs are too high for many households, even with the help of the grant, making it impossible for low-income households to benefit from the scheme, and while heat pump running costs are becoming competitive with gas boilers in some modelling, progress is urgently needed through electricity market reform to ensure running costs are affordable.

Moreover, public awareness of low-carbon heating systems is very limited, and promotion of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme has been inadequate, the Committee adds, and there is a shortage of heat-pump installers and insufficient independent advice for homeowners.

Baroness Parminter, Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Committee, said the transition to low-carbon heat is fundamental in the path to Net Zero, given that 17% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions come from homes.

She said, “The Government must quickly address the barriers we have identified to a successful take-up of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme in order to help grow the take up of low-carbon heating systems. It is vital they do so if we are going to meet our Net Zero ambitions.”

Boiler manufacturers Baxi Heating and Worcester Bosch installed hydrogen burning combi boilers into houses in November 2020, and they have been successfully providing heating and hot water.

Baxi Heating has also showcased its fully hydrogen boiler to both customers and colleagues in the UK’s first newly opened hydrogen house located in Gateshead, and partnered with H2Go Power to build a modular 1MWh fully automated hydrogen heating system, involving its own hydrogen boiler, which will be trialled by Northern Gas Networks.

Both Worcester Bosch and Baxi Heating have called on the UK Government to mandate only hydrogen-ready boilers on the market from 2025.

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In January, a UK MP and a local councillor raised concerns over plans put forward to test the suitability of hydrogen for domestic energy in Ellesmere Port, near Liverpool.

UK gas company Cadent had applied for Ellesmere Port to be considered for the UK Government’s Hydrogen Town pilot, but has since faced backlash from Justin Madders, MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston, and Louise Gittins, leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council.

In a letter to Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Madders and Gittins raised concerns of constituents surrounding uncertainty of what such a pilot could entail for residents.

It read, “Basic questions, for example, such as what will happen to the cost of energy after the trail ends, have thus far been left unanswered, leaving our constituents in a lot of doubt as to what will happen once the scheme ends. In conversations we have had with Cadent’s representatives, the fact that people have genuine concerns about the lack of information have been largely overlooked by them,” Madders and Gittins added.

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