Energy Transition Handbook - Flipbook - Page 42
Hogan Lovells
42
Decarbonisation of heat
Heating accounts for almost a third of GHG emissions globally and is also one of the
most complicated areas to decarbonise.
Decarbonisation of heat
Heating accounts for almost a third of GHG
emissions globally and is also one of the most
complicated areas to decarbonise.
There are a number of low carbon technologies
which can be utilised as sources of heat, but there
is a considerable amount of information lacking
on how these technologies can be integrated
with each other at a large scale. The scope of
the available options is changing dynamically,
with main technological developments emerging
over the last ten years. Currently, the most viable
choices are district heating networks or “greening”
of the gas grid. It is not clear, however, if either
will deliver significantly lower emission gas,
without being very expensive at the same time.
There is also a lack of hard evidence as to how it
might be rolled out in a safe and effective manner.
Use of electricity as a mean to decarbonise
heating seems to be a more deliverable idea in
practice. At the moment electricity has a very
similar proportion of carbon content as gas, but
significant technical progress is being made to
reduce that. As a result of moving away from coal
power stations to solar PV and wind farms the
emissions from grid electricity have nearly halved
over the last twenty years.
The European Commission is currently
considering the following three options for future
investments in gas infrastructure that would
contribute towards achieving climate neutrality
by 2050: (i) a gradual shift away from natural gas;
(ii) a green gas grid option, focused entirely on
the repurposing of gas grids to handle renewable
gases such as hydrogen, power-to-gas and biogas;
and (iii) an electricity only option, aimed to move
all funding for gas to electricity and smart grids.
In line with the European Commission’s policy
position funding will only be provided for “futureproof” gas infrastructure capable of handling
low-carbon gases, such as hydrogen, to avoid a
“lock-in” to fossil gas.