HYDROGEN AND RENEWABLE NATURAL GAS (RNG)
Green hydrogen is made from water using wind or solar power.
Green hydrogen should be produced and used on site to avoid the hazards of piping or transporting it.
"Clean" hydrogen produced from fossil gas that relies on unproven carbon capture and sequestration technologies is neither clean nor green.
Hydrogen
Hydrogen made from solar and wind can play an important role in decarbonizing parts of our economy. This renewable, often called “green,” hydrogen can be used effectively for:
Energy storage, especially when solar and wind produce excess electricity, and within a portfolio of other storage systems.
Fueling transportation for trans-ocean container ships and long haul trucks where battery weight, size, and range could be a constraint.
High-heat manufacturing such as making aluminum and steel.
As the smallest molecule on the planet, hydrogen is a very leaky and highly explosive gas that should not be blended into gas or distributed in what the industry calls “special” or “dedicated” hydrogen pipelines. Hydrogen has indirect climate warming effects, hence leaks of this gas into the atmosphere must be strictly monitored and minimized.
NEW REPORT
Using green hydrogen to heat homes would waste clean electricity and sink Massachusetts’ climate goals
Gas utilities are proposing to blend green hydrogen with natural gas in pipelines to heat Massachusetts homes.
A new report demonstrates that this plan will consume 120% of the Commonwealth’s offshore wind energy procured for 2030, preventing us from decarbonizing the grid and jeopardizing our climate goals.
The report recommends policy guidelines for using offshore wind energy more effectively and limiting the distribution of green hydrogen.
Gas companies are planning to blend hydrogen into the “natural” gas that’s piped to our homes and businesses.
Not all hydrogen is good for the climate. Nearly 100% of hydrogen is made from fossil fuels. Even more fossil fuel is needed to heat the water used to make hydrogen.
Gas companies are planning to blend hydrogen into the “natural” gas that’s piped to our homes and businesses, saying that it will “decarbonize” the gas system. But the reality is that heating with hydrogen increases rather than lowers emissions.
Hydrogen available for heating isn’t clean.
The hydrogen our utilities are banking on is made from fossil fuels and requires more dirty energy to make than if that coal, oil, or gas were used directly.
Hydrogen is an indirect greenhouse gas. It exacerbates the effects of methane and breaks down ozone in the stratosphere.
Hydrogen isn’t safe.
Hydrogen is more explosive than gas. One study predicts that there will be four times as many safety incidents from hydrogen than from methane.
Hydrogen isn’t healthy.
Burning hydrogen creates nitrogen oxides, which cause asthma.
Hydrogen is expensive and will increase inequities.
The high cost of making hydrogen will be passed along to consumers who will also likely have to replace their appliances, furnaces, and boilers.
Hydrogen is inefficient.
Steam methane reforming requires 30% more methane to make the same amount of energy in the hydrogen that was already in the methane.
We need a safe, healthy way to heat our homes and cook our food.
No matter how hydrogen is made, it’s not a viable solution for heating our buildings.
Piping hydrogen to our homes and businesses is not efficient, affordable, equitable, safe, or healthy.
Heating with hydrogen will increase rather than lower emissions.
The Gas Transition Allies research, compile, and broadcast information on hydrogen with a focus on why it’s a false solution for heating buildings.
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Renewable Natural Gas
Gas companies are talking about RNG and other gases they call “fossil-free” as a way to cut emissions. Methane is polluting whether it comes from fossilized plants and animals or from decaying plants and animals.
They imply that methane captured or made from biological sources can be used to heat our homes and power our future, but this gas is already in short supply, and the numbers don’t support taking this idea to scale.
The Gas Transition Allies support only very limited, highly localized use of RNG.
For example, the Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant (right) in Boston Harbor captures gas to use on site. Methane collected from the process is burned to make steam to run a turbine that generates electricity to run the facility.
Gas from the digesters at this Boston sewage treatment plant is used on site. Source: Deer Island
The Gas Transition Allies advance solutions that don’t require piping explosive, toxic, climate-damaging gas to heat buildings or continuing to use combustible gases in our homes.