Ms Marie Donnelly:

We have had hydrogen for years but green hydrogen is an emerging technology. It is currently very expensive. Electrolysers to produce it need to be developed further to become much more efficient than they currently are. Even with that, it is looking at this stage as if hydrogen will still be an expensive gas. Domestic heating is currently between 2 cents and 4 cents per kWh. Hydrogen is likely to cost in excess of 30 cents per kWh. Economically speaking, to put hydrogen into the domestic heating system would be a very expensive proposition, going forward. That could change, of course, if we get very efficient and have a lot of green hydrogen but, at the moment, it would be an difficult economic burden for consumers to have to pay that kind of price for their heating systems. The alternatives of district heating systems using the surplus heat from the data centres that nobody likes, heat pumps and biomass, where relevant, are more economic options for domestic heating systems in our current array of technologies.

The Deputy asked about the longevity of natural gas and it is a difficult question to answer.