Green hydrogen: Unrealistic hope for German households?

According to a legal opinion commissioned by a Munich-based environmental NGO, supplies of green hydrogen for heating homes should not play a major role in decarbonizing Germany’s heating sector. The main problems are uncertainties in planning hydrogen networks and uncertainty about how much hydrogen will be available in the future.

Network operators cannot yet reliably guarantee that gas networks will be converted to hydrogen. For this reason, local authorities cannot assume when planning their heating systems that households and other small consumers will be supplied with hydrogen in the future. This is the conclusion of a new legal opinion prepared on behalf of the Munich Environmental Institute by the law firm Günther, together with Deutsche Umwelthilfe, WWF, GermanZero and Climate Alliance.

Larger cities must submit their heating plans by mid-2026, while other municipalities have until mid-2028. Network operators cannot yet draw up schedules because the regulatory requirements for gas and hydrogen networks have not yet been updated. As a result, plans setting out heating options will not realistically be available in time.

Given the problems with municipal planning, legal experts say that “a hydrogen supply for households cannot be reliably assumed”. Homeowners would face considerable disadvantages if they prepared to heat their homes with hydrogen but ultimately did not have access to sufficient quantities of the green gas, the legal experts said.

“Time and resources could be wasted on an unrealistic solution,” the opinion says.

Experts say cities and municipalities should focus instead on the practical feasibility of technical solutions rather than seeking theoretically more attractive alternatives. At the same time, public authorities are legally required to observe the principle of economy, meaning they should avoid unnecessary planning efforts, the experts added.

“Municipalities should not plan to heat homes with hydrogen because it is unrealistic that green hydrogen will be available in sufficient quantities and at affordable prices,” energy consultant Wiebke Hansen of the Munich Environmental Institute told environmental news website Klimareporter.

Hansen said cities and municipalities would benefit from a clear ban on using green hydrogen for heating, as this would ensure that no further resources were invested in analyzing and planning infrastructure to distribute hydrogen for heating.

Industrial use of hydrogen is not ruled out

The report stresses that the above does not apply to industrial use of hydrogen, as municipalities can plan hydrogen networks for industrial use independently of the aforementioned heating plans and regulations. It should therefore be possible to build hydrogen networks specifically for industrial use if needed.