Exploring the Evidence on Potential Issues Associated with Trialling Hydrogen Heating in Communities

Replacing natural gas with hydrogen in an everyday setting – piping hydrogen to homes and businesses through the existing gas network – is a new and untested proposition. At the same time, piloting this proposition is an essential ingredient to a well-managed low carbon transition.
The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has commissioned CAG Consultants to undertake a literature review and conduct a set of four focus groups to inform the development of work to assess issues associated with setting up a hypothetical community hydrogen trial. This report sets out the findings from the research and presents reflections on the implications of the findings for any future community hydrogen heating trials.
The literature review was a short, focused review aimed at identifying evidence relevant to members of the public being asked to take part in a hypothetical community trial. Based primarily on Quick Scoping Review principles, the review involved the analysis of evidence from 26 items of literature. The four focus groups were held in-person in two city locations, Manchester and Birmingham in November 2019. They involved consumers who either owned or rented houses (i.e. not flats) connected to the gas grid. Two of the focus groups involved owner-occupiers, one was with private landlords and the other was with a mixture of tenants (private, social and student).
This report was produced in October 2019 and published in December 2020.