Hydrogen villages
Supporting the use of hydrogen for domestic heating.
Background
Hydrogen gas trials are an important way of determining how 100% hydrogen communities could work in practice and identify the best ways to scale.
Two sites were considered for village trials: Whitby, in Ellesmere Port, and Redcar. The projects were led by Cadent and Northern Gas Networks (NGN) respectively.
December 2023 update
In December 2023, the government decided not to proceed with a hydrogen village trial.
This was due to the main source of hydrogen needed for the trial not being available, as the hydrogen production for the village trial was not successful in securing funding through the hydrogen allocation round. As a result of this announcement, our associated hydrogen village trial change (XRN 5531) has been withdrawn.
Whilst this trial is no longer going ahead the government has confirmed that it recognises the potential role of hydrogen in home heating and will assess evidence from the neighbourhood trial in Fife (H100 Fife, which CDSP is actively supporting with the solution implemented under XRN 5298), as well as similar schemes across Europe, to decide in 2026 whether and how hydrogen could help households in the journey to net zero.
More information is available on the gov.uk website.
July 2023 update
The government is continuing to develop the proposal for a hydrogen village trial in Redcar, Teesside with Northern Gas Networks (NGN). Whitby, Ellesmere Port will no longer be considered as the location for the hydrogen village trial.
A decision on whether to proceed with the trial in Redcar will be made by the government later this year.