If only chemistry was so forgiving. The existing methane infrastructure isn't nothing, but it's also (from everything I've heard whenever this comes up) not everything either.
OTOH, I have heard hydrogen is a lot friendlier when mixed with methane, so I assume this will still be very useful when transitioning to whatever comes next.
Sure the storage tanks aren’t completely tight, so you will have some amount of leakage. But that’s (afaiu) mostly a problem of the distribution network. The tanks themselves are rather small and even if they leak 20% of their capacity.. who cares? You still get 200+TWh storage (because H2 is more energy dense than LNG) and you shouldn’t burn it either. Just use the reverse process to get electricity back. Yes _those_ plants aren’t there yet. They will have to be build. But that’s much less of a problem (10-20 locations) than upgrading all of the distribution network and all the heaters in every building!
We will have to move away from gas-to-buildings though and that will require an upgrade in like 60% of the buildings. Industry is much less of a problem, because at the end of the day, their consumption is much less seasonally influenced (2x, rather than 10x) and only about 1/3 of total gas consumption anyways. So deal with the 2/3 block first. Then chase the rest
If only chemistry was so forgiving. The existing methane infrastructure isn't nothing, but it's also (from everything I've heard whenever this comes up) not everything either.
OTOH, I have heard hydrogen is a lot friendlier when mixed with methane, so I assume this will still be very useful when transitioning to whatever comes next.