https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0196890422013802
"Building heating is one of the sectors for which multiple decarbonisation
options exist and current geopolitical tensions provide urgency to design
adequate regional policies. Heat pumps and hydrogen boilers, alongside
alternative district heating systems, are the most promising alternatives.
Although a host of city or country-level studies exist, it remains
controversial what role hydrogen should play for building heating in the
European Union compared with electrification and how blue and green hydrogen
differ in terms of costs and environmental impacts. This [work] assesses the
optimal technology mix for staying within planetary boundaries, and the
influence of international cooperation and political restrictions.
To perform the analysis, a bottom-up optimisation model was developed
incorporating life cycle assessment constraints and covering production,
storage, transport of energy and carbon dioxide, as well as grid and non-grid
connected end-users of heat. It was found that a building heating system within
planetary boundaries is feasible through large-scale electrification via heat
pumps, although at a higher cost than the current system with abatement costs
of around 200 €/ton CO2.
Increasing interconnector capacity or onshore wind energy is found to be vital
to staying within boundaries. A strong trade-off for hydrogen was identified,
with blue hydrogen being cost-competitive but vastly unsustainable (when
applied to heating) and green hydrogen being 2–3 times more expensive than
electrification while still transgressing several planetary boundaries.
The insights from this work indicate that heat pumps and renewable electricity
should be prioritised over hydrogen-based heating in most cases and
grid-stability and storage aspects explored further, while revealing a need for
policy instruments to mitigate increased costs for consumers."
Via Christoph S, who wrote "Yeah. Another study finding the obious thing that
hydrogen is inefficient"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
