Government plans to replace domestic gas boilers with a hydrogen-based alternative are likely to be scrapped.
Energy secretary Grant Shapps has said hydrogen would form part of Britain’s overall energy mix but predicted it was “less likely” that the gas would be routinely piped into people’s homes, amid growing concerns about cost, safety and perpetuating a reliance on fossil fuels.
Trials have been under way, but most recently plans to supply 2,000 homes in Cheshire were scrapped due to local opposition.
Shapps said: “There was a time when people thought… you will have something that just looks like a gas boiler and we will feed hydrogen into it.”
He added: “It’s not that we won’t do trials. We will. But I think hydrogen will be used for storing energy. You won’t have to switch off wind farms when you don’t need the power because you can turn it into hydrogen and use it later.”
