Hydrogen boilers will help us to reach net zero together

Increasingly we are seeing the impact of climate change whether it’s extreme heat in Greece and Italy, or flooding in London and Germany.  It’s there for everyone to see. 

Our response has to be the elimination of carbon emissions as quickly as we can in a way that is affordable. In the UK, our homes are responsible for around 20% of the UK’s carbon emissions, so tackling the issue of decarbonising heat in our homes is critical.  The publication of the Government’s Hydrogen Strategy is an important milestone that outlines the key role that hydrogen will play on this journey.

At Centrica, we have a plan to help our customers be net zero by 2050. To do this we must start to pick up the pace of change now and we need to be mindful of people claiming that they have a single solution.  It’s clear to me that we will need a range of energy technologies to decarbonise our homes.  While ending the use of natural gas as a fuel in the home is the right thing to do, the boiler will still play a role in the transition to net zero. Today, through British Gas, we’re already installing hydrogen ready boilers – what we need to do is to incentivise the production of hydrogen at scale so that we can start to burn hydrogen in those boilers and gradually replace natural gas.  This is the least disruptive and most affordable solution for well over 75% of UK households.   

I appreciate that the transition to net zero will be a massive challenge for Government, and it's incumbent upon businesses, non-government organisations (NGOs) and broader society to work together to rise to this challenge. Alongside the benefits of hydrogen in the home, the Government’s Hydrogen Strategy will help kickstart the hydrogen economy, where hydrogen production, transportation and storage will help create thousands of new well-paid jobs, encourage private investment, and level up communities. The apprentices we are recruiting now will be creating the low carbon homes of the future, and we are equipping them with the skills needed to make that possible.

At Centrica we are committed to ensuring a just transition to net zero, which means nobody gets left behind because they can't afford it or they don't have well-insulated homes. I was pleased to read about the UK's major boiler manufacturers' price promise that hydrogen-ready boilers will cost no more than natural gas equivalents. Heat pumps, whether ground source or air source, have a place and are the right solution for the 15% of UK homes which aren’t connected to the gas grid today – but they are more expensive to install and more expensive to run, so they are not the only solution. And while some may worry about the safety of hydrogen, or the ability of the system to be adapted to hydrogen, we know it can be done.  Before natural gas, the UK ran on “Town Gas”.  And “Town Gas” was mostly hydrogen – so we know we can make it work because we were a hydrogen economy 50 years ago – we just didn’t realise it at the time!

Let’s continue to reach for net zero at speed, looking at and embracing the different technologies that best suit the needs of our customers and the different types of housing stock across the country. Together, we can create a more inclusive and sustainable future that supports our communities, our planet and each other.