Policy background Part 4: New Technology Hydrogen trials
Low carbon hydrogen could be one of a few key options for decarbonising heat in buildings, alongside more established technologies such as heat pumps and heat networks. The Government is working with industry, regulators, and others to deliver a range of research, development, and testing projects to assess the feasibility, costs, and benefits of using 100% hydrogen for heating. This work includes a programme of community trials. As set out in the Government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy, the Government will support industry to deliver a neighbourhood trial by 2024; (preparation is underway, with the trial due to start in the second half of 2024); a village scale trial by 2025; and a potential hydrogen heated town before the end of the decade.
	The trials, together with the results of a wider research, development and testing programme, will enable strategic decisions in 2026 on the role of hydrogen for heat decarbonisation and whether to proceed with a hydrogen heated town, as set out in the Hydrogen Strategy 7 , and the Net Zero Strategy 8 .
	The hydrogen village trial will be led by a gas distribution network operator and will be a grid conversion trial. This means it will involve disconnecting a section of the local gas grid from the natural gas supply and connecting it instead to a hydrogen supply. The Act will enable this by including provisions that allow trial operators to deliver the trial safely and effectively and allow for additional consumer protections to be put in place.