FAQs

What is H100 Fife?

It’s a world-first project that’s bringing the future of clean energy to Levenmouth. Our goal is to help the Government make decisions for the future, by showing that hydrogen gas, a clean fuel, can be used instead of natural gas, a fossil fuel, to heat homes.

Why is the project happening?

It’s important in the fight against climate change. Central heating is a big contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, which can cause global warming. The governments in Scotland and the UK have promised to reduce emissions to net zero by 2045 and 2050, so H100 Fife aims to prove that we can use hydrogen to make heating greener.

What is net zero?

Net zero is when we don’t contribute to climate change.

Every time we burn fossil fuels, like natural gas, petrol or coal, they release greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. These gases are causing the planet to get warmer, causing more extreme weather like droughts, floods, and wildfires.

To stop adding to climate change, we must reach net zero greenhouse gases. Net zero means keeping things in balance – cutting the amount of gas we put into the atmosphere, replacing old polluting energy with new green alternatives, and capturing any greenhouse gases we do release.

What’s involved in the project and what’s the timeline?

The project will build a new hydrogen production facility and install a new gas network in Levenmouth.

If you’re eligible to become part of the project, you will be able book an appointment to visit our hydrogen showhome. Here, you can experience hydrogen heating and cooking in action.

Starting in 2024, we’ll begin to switch the natural gas supply in up to 300 local homes to hydrogen. We’ll only switch homes that opt-in and agree to this, the choice is yours. These homes will be the first in the world to use 100% zero-carbon hydrogen to heat their homes and cook their food.

We’ll be collecting important data about hydrogen and the experience of the project participants until 2027.

Will H100 Fife benefit the community?

Yes! We’re going to partner with local schools, colleges, education centres and training providers to bring opportunities for young people and the existing workforce. Where possible, we’ll use local contractors and service providers.

The project’s hydrogen demonstration facility will be used for events, education and training. We can also expect positive economic benefits for local businesses, with a wide range of delegates from UK and international organisations visiting the project.

Will the project cause roadworks, disruption, noise or pollution?

If you become part of the project, any disruption will be minimal. The changeover from natural gas to hydrogen gas should take less than 24 hours and, apart from having new appliances, you won’t notice the difference.

We will work with Fife Council to ensure that all of the noise, road traffic and system noise assessments for our site operations is acceptable to the local community.

There will be roadworks – but we’ll do our best to plan our work to minimise its impact on local residents and motorists. Remember, we’ll always provide advance notification if we need to restrict parking, use temporary traffic lights or close a road. We’ll also restore any areas we’ve disturbed as quickly as possible making good all road surfaces, pavements, and driveways.

Reducing the disruption caused by our work is really important to us. We’ve already carried out noise and traffic assessments to ensure minimal impact and we’ll continue to assess our impact as our work progresses.

How safe will hydrogen be in our homes?

Safety is at the heart of everything we do. Your safety, and the safety of our employees, is our number one priority as we keep gas flowing to homes and businesses.

Lots of work has been conducted by the gas networks, the gas industry and experts in the UK and around the world to show that hydrogen gas is a suitable replacement for natural gas. This includes research and testing to understand how hydrogen gas behaves and how it can be used safely. We’re working to ensure hydrogen is delivered and can be used at least as safely as natural gas and are liaising with the Health and Safety Executive. In fact, hydrogen gas has safety benefits over natural gas because there are no carbon monoxide emissions associated with green hydrogen.

The H100 Fife site has been designed to make sure that the hydrogen gas production and storage facility is located at a safe distance from neighbouring properties.

Hydrogen in the gas networks is not new. Before the discovery of North Sea gas in the 1960s and the conversion to natural gas in the 70s, UK households were supplied with town gas. Hydrogen was the main component of town gas along with carbon monoxide and methane.

It’s important to remember that many substances that we use in our daily lives can become unsafe if not handled or used correctly, including the natural gas we currently use to heat our homes. The gas networks are made safe by design and 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, our teams are working behind the scenes and out on the streets to keep you safe and the gas flowing. The same safety principles and priorities will be applied to hydrogen gas, with all appropriate risk assessments and safety measures being implemented to ensure a safe network.

Where does hydrogen come from?

Hydrogen can come from a variety of sources and be used in many ways.

Today, it’s mainly produced from natural gas using industrial processes. This is known as grey hydrogen because, even if burning the hydrogen itself doesn’t generate carbon, creating the hydrogen does.

Those emissions can be captured and stored so that they don’t enter the atmosphere. When hydrogen is produced this way, it’s known as blue hydrogen.

H100 Fife will use green hydrogen. This is hydrogen that’s been produced using renewable energy, such as wind power, so it doesn’t generate any carbon.

How is hydrogen stored?

Similarly to natural gas, the hydrogen gas for H100 Fife will be safely stored in specially-designed tanks. Our on-site storage unit will hold enough hydrogen gas to ensure supply won’t be disrupted during even the coldest weather conditions.

How can I get involved?

If you live in the local area and you’d like to make history by being part of the project, the first step is to register your interest in participating. We’ll keep your details on file and be in touch soon.

Stay connected by checking this website regularly and following us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  We’ll keep you updated as the project progresses.