The site, at the Health and Safety Executive’s Science and Research Centre in Buxton, will carry out tests to establish if a hydrogen gas network is equally as safe as the natural gas grid powering our homes and businesses.
The results will be critical in determining if it is safe to convert millions of homes across the country from natural gas to hydrogen.
H21 is led by Northern Gas Networks (NGN), the gas distributor for the North of England, in partnership with Cadent, SGN and Wales & West Utilities, HSE Science and Research Centre, and DNV-G.
Currently, about 30 percent of UK carbon emissions are from the heating of homes, businesses, and industry. H21 says that large-scale conversion of the gas grid from natural gas to hydrogen is vital to meeting the Government’s Net Zero targets.
The Buxton testing facilities have been built following the H21 North of England report which sets out plans on how hydrogen could be used to deliver clean energy to nearly 4m homes and 40,000 businesses and industries in the North of England by 2034.
Mark Horsley, Chief Executive of Northern Gas Networks, said: “I’m proud that H21 is launching the world’s first 100% hydrogen testing facility.
“The potential for this low carbon gas to make inroads into decarbonisation is immense and the work that Northern Gas Networks and its partners is doing here is critical in understanding how we can make a zero-carbon, hydrogen-based gas grid a reality. This will not only enable us to meet decarbonisation targets, but it will improve air quality in towns and cities, create thousands of good jobs and place the UK as a global leader in hydrogen technology.
“We look forward to sharing our results with the Government, the sector, and other industries so that we can work collaboratively to achieve a clean, hydrogen economy as soon as possible and deliver on the promise of low carbon energy for our communities.”
Anna Turley MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hydrogen, said: “It is great to see world-leading hydrogen conversion projects taking place in the UK. As a country, we can be leaders in a large-scale shift to using hydrogen for heating our homes, fuelling transport, and powering heavy industry.
“H21 is a hugely important project helping to achieve this and I congratulate all the organisations involved in successfully creating the first-ever 100% hydrogen test facility. I look forward to seeing the results and working with H21 to share these across Parliament and with the Government”.
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