While hydrogen energy heating “fires” throughout Europe, many European research institutions have pointed out that the current natural gas hydrogen heating, especially green hydrogen heating, still has many problems such as high cost and limited hydrogen sources.
The rapid implementation of hydrogen energy Heating is likely to lead to a substantial increase in heating costs for European residents.
Does hydrogen heating work in Europe
Recently, the world’s first green hydrogen heating pilot project in Scotland, UK officially started. The Scottish natural gas supplier SGN will cooperate with the local government to complete the pilot project of offshore wind power and hydrogen production in the region within two years.
At the same time, the European Union is also preparing the latest hydrogen mixing standards for natural gas pipelines, and even plans to “completely ban fossil fuel heating boiler equipment in 2030.”
Hydrogen heating is “booming” in EU
For a long time, heating is not only one of the most energy-consuming fields in Europe, but also the “main force” of greenhouse gas emissions. According to data released by the British government, the total greenhouse gas emissions from the use of fossil fuels for heating and cooking account for more than 30% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Statistics from the European environmental protection organization ECOS also show that the total heat consumption of residential houses, buildings, and water heating accounts for about 28% of the EU’s overall energy consumption. It is necessary to achieve the EU’s emission reduction targets and carbon reduction in the heating sector. It seems particularly important.
According to European media Euractiv, in November this year, the European Commission has begun to formulate new technical standards for residential heating boilers. Judging from the current technical standards disclosed, the EU may fully implement heating boilers that “mix at least 20%” of hydrogen. , In order to achieve its emission reduction targets.
Up to now, EU member states such as Germany, France, and Luxembourg have all publicly stated their support for the proposal to completely phase out fossil fuel boilers.
Euractiv quoted Luxembourg Minister of Energy Claude Turmes as saying: “Fossil fuel technology and equipment will still exist on the market for a period of time, but to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, from a certain point in time, we will have to completely abandon fossil fuels. Just like that. Just as the EU announced that it will abandon gasoline and diesel cars, fossil fuel boilers are likely to face a ban.”
The United Kingdom, as the first European country to implement renewable energy hydrogen production and joint heating, seems to be more “radical” in terms of hydrogen heating. According to the National Hydrogen Energy Strategy formulated by the British government, by 2030, the United Kingdom will build electrolysis water hydrogen production equipment with a capacity of 5 million kilowatts, and vigorously promote green hydrogen in ordinary homes, transportation and industrial fields.
Possibly push up heating costs
In recent years, European hydrogen producers are seizing the opportunity and vigorously lobbying European government departments to issue relevant policies to support the application of hydrogen heating, including heating for public buildings and residential heating. However, after calculations by many research institutions, it is believed that there is no “feasible strategy” in European countries to make hydrogen heating truly economical.
The German think tank Agora Energiewende pointed out in the latest report that mixing hydrogen in heating pipelines cannot effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the heating sector. Under the same circumstances, this is only less than the greenhouse gas emissions of pure natural gas heating. It is about 7%, but it may increase the heating cost of residents by more than 33%.
The agency pointed out that although the cost of hydrogen production from renewable energy is expected to drop to about 1.5 Euro/kg in the next few years, if the cost of hydrogen pipeline transportation, storage and distribution is taken into account, the cost of hydrogen heating for ordinary residents may double. above.
Therefore, although large-scale renewable energy hydrogen production has commercial application value in industry and commerce and other fields, it is very uneconomical for residents to use hydrogen for heating.
According to the current emission reduction targets set by the European Union, by 2030, the European Union plans to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of its residential houses by 42% from 2015. However, in Agora Energiewende’s view, no government is willing to provide huge subsidies for hydrogen heating, and consumers will eventually pay for the expensive hydrogen heating costs.
Clean heating or other better options
Not only that, the above-mentioned think tanks also pointed out that the greater problem of replacing natural gas with hydrogen for heating is the lack of hydrogen sources. In fact, European natural gas still relies heavily on imports.
If it is replaced with hydrogen, imported green hydrogen will face high transportation costs. Europe’s own renewable energy resources are relatively limited, and the cost of green hydrogen production is relatively high. Locally produced green hydrogen It is also difficult to be competitive.
Another major drawback of hydrogen heating is its low efficiency. Research by Agora Energiewende pointed out that for green hydrogen heating, for every 100 kWh of electricity produced by renewable energy, only 61 kWh of heat energy can be produced through the electrolysis of water.
\Heat pumps provide heat, and every 100 kWh of renewable energy can produce at least 125 kWh of heat energy, which is significantly more efficient.
Researcher Jan Rosenow of RAP, an independent research institute in Europe, also said that whether it is used in combination with fossil fuels or used alone, hydrogen sources will be a major problem faced by European countries.
Some analysts believe that hydrogen may be the “only” option to achieve decarbonization goals for high-carbon industries such as steel and chemical industries. However, in the field of heating, heat pump heating, district heating and other methods have better economics. The efficiency and availability are also higher than that of hydrogen heating.
Under this circumstance, the industry generally doubts that the large-scale promotion of pure hydrogen heating or natural gas hydrogen heating in Europe will face difficult financing prospects.
