The peer-reviewed report published in the academic journal Joule found that compared to other alternatives such as heat pumps, solar thermal and district heating, hydrogen use for domestic heating is less economic, less efficient, more resource intensive, and associated with larger environmental impacts.

According to Jan Rosenow, Director of European Programmes at the Regulatory Assistance Project, a think tank in Brussels, who carried out the research, instead of looking to hydrogen to eventually replace fossil fuels used for heating buildings, the focus should instead be on speeding up the roll-out of energy efficiency and heat pumps.

He says that despite the significant attention that hydrogen has received from governments and the media in recent years, the independent studies reviewed do not support widespread use of hydrogen for space and hot water heating, although some identify complementary roles for hydrogen, particularly in district heating and hybrid heating systems. ‘Policymakers are therefore well advised to consider the existing research carefully before allocating significant public funds for hydrogen heating,’ Rosenow warns.

He also notes that there are many competing high-priority applications where hydrogen is essential, including, for example, replacing existing hydrogen use with green hydrogen (for example, in fertiliser production) and replacing fossil fuels in high-temperature industrial processes, shipping, and long-term energy storage for electricity production.

‘Given the scale of hydrogen needed for those applications where few alternative decarbonisation options exist, it seems sensible to focus efforts in the heating sector on the roll-out of established technologies,’ says Rosenow.

He also points out that there is a risk that the discussion on hydrogen for heating could lead to a delay in deploying alternative clean heating technologies that are available today and reduce greenhouse gas emissions now, including energy efficient heat pumps, district heating, solar thermal, and others. ‘Given the urgency of reducing carbon emissions, policies and regulations should focus on increasing deployment of technologies available today, rather than anticipating widespread availability of hydrogen later,’ he concludes.