NEWS IN BRIEF Redcar hydrogen trial is scrapped The government has abandoned a plan to test the use of hydrogen to heat up to 2,000 homes in Teesside, while backing 11 industrial hydrogen projects The domestic trial was due to take place in Redcar, with home gas supplies replaced with hydrogen. It has been cancelled because the main source of hydrogen will not be available, said the government, which will now focus on a trial in Fife to decide whether hydrogen should be used to heat homes in 2026. Meanwhile, the government is backing 11 new green hydrogen projects focused on decarbonising hard-to-abate industrial processes. The projects include InchDairnie Distillery in Scotland, which plans to run a boiler on 100% hydrogen for its distilling process Ministers have said they will support hydrogen blending of up to 20% in gas networks in a limited and temporary role. Blending would help the UK achieve its net zero targets while it moves away from the use of natural gas. Nabers to penalise gas To support a shift towards net zero in the Australian and New Zealand property sector, the Nabers energy efficiency rating is to penalise the use of gas in buildings more heavily. It is expected that gas-fired plant will be replaced with electric alternatives to help buildings decarbonise and get to net zero certification. Emissions from fugitive refrigerant leakage will also need to be offset for buildings looking to achieve certification. Hydrogen-ready boilers ruled out in new buildings Future Homes and Buildings Standard supports heat pumps and heat networks The UK government is proposing that all new homes and non-domestic buildings in England are built zero carbon ready from 2025. In its consultation on the Future Homes and Buildings Standards, published last month, the government says the proposals will mean no further work to buildings would be needed to meet zero carbon emissions once the electricity Grid has fully decarbonised. The proposals focus on improvements to the minimum standards for fixed building services. These include banning gas and hydrogen-ready boilers in favour of air source heat pumps or connection to a 4th-generation heat network. District heat networks will also likely be the preferred way of providing heating and hot water to blocks of flats. Existing building fabric standards will be retained, but the airtightness of new homes, warehouses and sports halls will be improved. The government is also looking to toughen up standards for homes created from buildings that have undergone a material change of use. There is also a proposal to replace the Standard Assessment Procedure with the Home Energy Model to calculate compliance (see below). The proposals do not include the carbon embodied in building materials and construction processes, which the government says it will consult on in due course. Feedback from the consultation will be published as new regulations in 2024, with the new standards coming into force from 2025 with a one year transition period. The UK Green Building Council has criticised the proposals for lacking ambition and for failing to make the installation of photovoltaics mandatory, address embodied carbon, or tackle flood risk. (See page 26.) New energy model to replace SAP The government is proposing to replace the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) with a new Home Energy Model (HEM), to coincide with the introduction of the Future Homes and Buildings Standards and bring the UKs energy modelling standards in line with international best practice. SAP is used to calculate compliance with Part L of the Building Regulations in England. It would be replaced by the HEM: Future Homes Standard (FHS) in 2025, to demonstrate that dwellings comply with the FHS. The model is still under development, but the government is consulting on it while it is still at a formative stage so that industry can participate in the development process. According to Elmhurst Energy, the UKs largest accreditation scheme for energy assessors, the Home Energy Model would eventually be expanded to include production of Energy Performance Certificates. Stuart Fairlie, Elmhursts MD, said: HEM should not be seen as a replacement for SAP, but rather an enhancement to support the transition to net zero. Changes to the model ecosystem include an open-source methodology and a revised database of product characteristics, while the calculation methodology includes increased time resolution. 6 January 2024 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Jan 24 pp06 News.indd 6 21/12/2023 13:42