A recent study reviewing hydrogen for home heating came to the conclusion it was not a good option. The paper is Seasonal hydrogen storage for residential on- and off-grid solar photovoltaics prosumer applications: Revolutionary solution or niche market for the energy transition until 2050? was published in Applied Energy.
There are many advocates for hydrogen but some borders on being a cult. The model was for energy out to 2050 and the diagram shows the components of the model.
Their conclusions for hydrogen for home heating were:
- Strong seasonality lowers self-consumption ratio in PV prosumer systems.
- Heat demand and electric vehicles require micro on-site sector coupling.
- Seasonal hydrogen storage offers only limited solution for bottlenecks.
- Globally, PV and battery systems offer best cost advantage for majority of regions.
- Seasonal storage only required in Nordic countries for off-grid operation
Only a few regions could be identified with a seasonal hydrogen storage system in the least cost solution, either due to very high seasonality or high energy demand, and only if the system is forced to work in off-grid operation. If grid connection is allowed, no region globally could be found with hydrogen as part of a least cost solution until 2050.
Keiner et al 2023 Applied Energy
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