The Hydrogen Village will follow a number of other programmes
demonstrating hydrogen for heating and cooking.
Introducing
the Hydrogen Village
In 2026 the government will make some key decisions on the future plan for heating in the UK. It will look at evidence and learnings from a number of environmental programmes – including the Hydrogen Village.
The Hydrogen Village programme is critical to help solve the global climate crisis.
As well as helping reduce greenhouse gases locally, it will help inform a decision on the future of heat across the rest of the UK.
There are two areas that have been identified as ideal places for the full Hydrogen Village programme to take place; one is an area of around 2,000 properties within Whitby (Ellesmere Port).
Cadent will start engaging with Whitby’s local community from Spring 2022 to explain more about the conversion programme, answer questions, and draw up detailed design plans.
The Hydrogen Village programme will:
- Demonstrate benefits of hydrogen for heating in a large domestic area
- Help Gas Distribution Networks understand how to convert future areas of the gas grid to hydrogen as efficiently as possible
- Help the Government to assess the feasibility, costs and benefits of a transition to hydrogen for heat
- Enable a policy decision on whether or not other gas networks will be converted, at scale, for use of hydrogen in occupied buildings.
- Build an index of real-world knowledge on the extent and practicability of any additional network design and installation requirements, and corresponding maintenance and repair regimes.
Whitby Hydrogen Village - project partners
Beyond the village
Other ongoing and upcoming hydrogen heating programmes in the UK include:
The hydrogen heating timeline
Here’s some examples of what’s already been prepared for a possible
switch to hydrogen, and what’s to come…
A blend of 20% hydrogen gas and 80% natural gas is supplied for 130 buildings at Keele University.
The UK government publishes its ‘Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution” – setting out the approach government will take to build back better, support green jobs, and accelerate our path to Net Zero.
A blend of 20% hydrogen gas and 80% natural gas is supplied to over 670 buildings near Gateshead.
The first show homes with 100% hydrogen-fuelled appliances open to the public.
Meanwhile, the UK Government asks Gas Distribution Networks for proposals to convert a village-sized area to hydrogen.
In consultation with Cheshire West & Chester Council, Cadent identifies an area within Whitby, Ellesmere Port, as an ideal location for the Hydrogen Village programme, which would see around 2,000 properties being supplied with 100% hydrogen via existing local gas pipes. (Supply of the hydrogen would start from 2025 and continue for at least two years.)
Cadent and British Gas start speaking to local residents in Whitby and carrying out in-home hydrogen-assessments to understand how Hydrogen Village programme could be delivered locally.
This year, a neighbourhood of 300 homes in Fife, Scotland, will start being supplied with 100% hydrogen for cooking and heating.
Also this year, the Government will make a decision on whether the ‘Hydrogen Village’ programme should take place in Whitby, or somewhere else.
Hydrogen will start being produced at scale at the HyNet production facilities at Stanlow Manufacturing Complex, Ellesmere Port.
Hydrogen will start being supplied to homes and businesses in the Hydrogen Village area, via local gas pipe infrastructure.
The UK Government will make a decision on the future of heat nationally. It’ll draw on various information including the work carried out in the Hydrogen Village.
The deadline for net zero; the commitment for the UK to stop emitting more CO2 into the atmosphere than it’s able to remove.
Hydrogen is a really important fuel to help decarbonise the heating sector. We won’t achieve Net Zero without it in the timeframe needed to avoid catastrophic climate change. The future needs a gas and that gas is hydrogen.
Dr Angela Needle
Director of Strategy, Cadent.
Next steps
Hydrogen could be used within an area of Whitby from 2025, but there’s a few things to do first...
In Spring 2022, Cadent and British Gas wrote to every address in Whitby to confirm which properties are located within the proposed 'Village' boundary.
Cadent and British Gas have now started speaking in more detail with Whitby residents, landlords and businesses to answer questions, complete surveys and create a strong community programme.
As part of these surveys, every property in the proposed ‘Hydrogen Village’ area – around 2,000 homes in an area within Whitby – will receive a free in-home hydrogen assessment.
In 2023 Ofgem, the energy regulator for Great Britain, will confirm which location the full programme will go ahead in (the area within Whitby in Ellesmere Port, or another area, in the North East of England).
Properties in the confirmed ‘Hydrogen Village’ will be provided with a free ‘hydrogen-ready’ gas boiler upgrade, and hydrogen will be supplied from 2025 for the duration of the programme – currently expected to last around two years.
More details will be announced soon but if you’d like to speak to someone now, please get in touch.