HYDROGEN NOT THE ANSWER
OUR weather in recent days raises the question again of how best to fuel our future to address the sometimes-clashing objectives of addressing net zero whilst ensuring the UK engineers a secure and reliable electricity grid network for us and future generations.
In the calm and cold weather Scotland was at 09.43 today (March 10) importing 1077MW to keep the country running as our wind generation has collapsed. Without Torness, due to close in 2028 or earlier, which is running flat out today, the power shortfall in Scotland would be 2300MW.
Whilst England is experiencing less calm conditions and the UK is concurrently generating 26% of demand from wind, solar in their dull, snowy weather has all but collapsed, providing only 1,270 MW from an installed capacity of circa 11,000MW, representing only 3.13% of UK demand
Gas is having to provide 37% of demand and we are having to also buy 5980MW from Europe to balance demand – some 14.76% of our needs, with much of it from nuclear.
Generation by natural gas produces significant levels of CO2, although this is around half that produced by coal generation without carbon capture, which capability is still under development.
“Burn hydrogen ” is the cry in some quarters as the solution to this challenge; however hydrogen also has some dirty secrets if adopted for electricity generation, home heating and the like.
Since hydrogen does not exist to any useful extent in free form on Earth we have to manufacture it. Irrespective of the method used, whether from steam reforming of natural gas or by electrolysis, the energy released by the resulting hydrogen will be around 25-35% less than the energy it took to make it.
Hydrogen is itself a greenhouse gas with a Global Warming Potential (GWP) 5.8 times greater than CO2. Nitrous oxide – a by-product of burning hydrogen in air in, for example, internal combustion engines, has a GWP 273 times that of CO2. Water vapour, a significant by-product of burning hydrogen in cooking appliances creating 60% more than presently burning natural gas is known to amplify the warming caused by other greenhouse gases.
To the about-to-be launched Future System Operator being created to replace the National Grid Electricity System Operator recently sacked by Ofgem, quo vadis?
DB Watson, Cumbernauld.
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