RECENT DISPUTES between offshore wind operators and Massachusetts regulators highlight how our clean energy future is far from guaranteed. The two projects in dispute, Commonwealth Wind and SouthCoast Wind (formerly Mayflower Wind), together with Vineyard Wind Project 1, make up 3.2 gigawatts of offshore wind energy Massachusetts has planned for 2030. These offshore wind projects are essential to decarbonizing our electric grid and meeting the growing demands of key sectors, such as electric vehicles and heating buildings.

If regulators allow gas utilities to use renewable energy to produce green hydrogen to heat Massachusetts buildings, utilities will hijack our offshore wind energy resources and/or other sources of clean electricity, endangering our climate goals. Using renewable electricity directly – for example in heat pumps or electric cars – will always be more efficient than using that same electricity to produce hydrogen and pipe that hydrogen through the leaky gas distribution system. It’s a matter of physics.

Buildings generate 27 percent of Massachusetts greenhouse gas emissions, one of the largest sources of emissions in the Commonwealth. In 2020, then-Attorney General Maura Healey urged the Department of Public Utilities  to open a “Future of Gas” investigation to determine how we can rapidly decarbonize our buildings sector. The result of this utility-led process is not surprising, but also not a low-emissions or low-cost solution. Gas utilities assert the need to continue using their pipelines (replacing some and building more) to distribute a blend of green hydrogen and “renewable natural gas” as an alternative to using electric heat pumps to heat our homes and other buildings.

The gas utilities claim that using this blended gas for heating would reduce demand for electricity, compared with switching to electric heat pumps. As they have provided little or no evidence to support this, we investigated two simple questions:

  • If gas utilities rely on green hydrogen, made using renewable electricity to convert water into hydrogen with electrolysis, how much renewable electricity would be needed?
  • How much renewable electricity would be necessary to provide the same amount of heat to homes and other buildings using heat pumps, as proposed by the Massachusetts Clean Energy and Climate Plan for 2050?

Our finding disqualifies the use of green hydrogen for heat, without even considering the myriad issues of climate impacts, cost, equity, health, and safety that also should disqualify using green hydrogen to heat buildings.

We found that a 20 percent volume blend of green hydrogen (which would only replace 7 percent of the total gas) in the fossil gas distributed in Massachusetts would use 3.4 times as much electricity as heat pumps. While Massachusetts utilities have procured only 3.2 gigawatts of the mandated 5.6 gigawatt offshore wind by 2027, about 3.9 gigawatts would be needed to produce enough green hydrogen for this 20 percent blend. Thus, producing sufficient green hydrogen to satisfy the utilities’ plans to add it to the gas pipelines would deplete limited renewable energy and derail our efforts to decarbonize the electric grid.

The good news is Massachusetts has a proven, highly efficient alternative to heat buildings: heat pumps. These humble yet mighty appliances are not only about three to four times more efficient than burning hydrogen, but perform well in even the coldest New England weather. Governor Healey has set a goal to deploy 1 million heat pumps by 2030, and the 2022 Commission on Clean Heat Final Report heavily favored heat pumps powered by renewable energy. Yet, if state leaders and regulators fail to act now, gas utilities will move forward with their plans to blend hydrogen and RNG into the gas system, wasting the Commonwealth’s precious renewable energy resources.

Green hydrogen does have some important roles in our clean energy future, but as a resource intensive and highly explosive fuel, it should be used only in the most difficult to decarbonize applications, such as steelmaking, oil refining, and fertilizer production. Additionally, while hydrogen doesn’t release GHG emissions when it’s burned, it does release nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions which can have significant adverse respiratory effects.

Rather than let the gas industry waste our renewable energy resources, we need to ensure our resources are used wisely. Governor Healey, our State Legislature, and regulatory leaders should focus on supporting the installation of highly efficient heat pumps in our homes and other buildings, while simultaneously preventing gas utilities from blending hydrogen into the pipes under our streets and in our homes. In parallel, we should support bills now before our legislators that create new opportunities for utilities and their workforces to redirect their resources towards decarbonization solutions that actually benefit all Massachusetts residents and businesses. This is our only path to achieve the goals essential to building a clean energy economy.

Gordon Richardson has worked as an independent consultant, a consultant with Arthur D. Little, and as chief engineer at Houston-based Eastman Whipstock Inc. He is the coauthor of a report on green hydrogen production for Gas Transition Allies.  Ben Butterworth is the director of climate, energy, and equity analysis at the Acadia Center.