FAQs
Find answers to your most common questions here.
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.
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 autumn 2025, 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.
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.
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 tanks will hold enough hydrogen gas to ensure supply won’t be disrupted during even the coldest weather conditions.
What is the purpose of H100 Fife?
H100 Fife focuses on demonstrating hydrogen for heating in homes to see if it can be a practical alternative to natural gas. The project is only looking at using hydrogen in domestic settings, not for commercial or industrial use.
The goal is to learn how hydrogen can help reduce carbon emissions from home heating, which makes up a significant part of the UK’s total carbon emissions. This trial will provide valuable insights into how we can decarbonise domestic heating, though it’s important to note that not all homes currently use gas.
While H100 Fife is focused on domestic use, we believe hydrogen has the potential to be used across different sectors, including heating, power, industry, and transport. This could happen by transforming the gas networks to use low-carbon gases like hydrogen.
Studies by SGN and National Gas Transmission (NGT) are already exploring how to repurpose gas networks for hydrogen and the development of blue and green hydrogen production across Scotland and the UK. These projects are helping us understand how hydrogen fits into the wider energy system to reduce emissions, alongside other renewable technologies. Find out more about these projects:
Will the hydrogen supplied by H100 Fife to homes be green hydrogen?
Yes, the hydrogen supplied by the H100 Fife project will be green hydrogen.
Hydrogen is categorised by colour, depending on how it’s made. Green hydrogen refers to hydrogen produced using renewable energy, like wind or solar power. For H100 Fife, we’re using energy from a 7MW wind turbine to produce green hydrogen.
To make sure we always have power, the project also has a back-up connection to the electricity grid, which may be used if needed. While grid electricity isn’t always from renewable sources, Scotland’s strong supply of wind energy means that even when grid power is used, renewable energy still plays a big role.
For more details on different types of hydrogen, check out the National Grid’s hydrogen colour spectrum explainer here.
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.
You can find out more about how we’ll keep you safe and warm as we transition to clean energy here.
Is H100 Fife benefitting the community?
Yes! We’re partnering with local schools, colleges, education centres and training providers to bring opportunities for young people and the existing workforce. Where possible, we’re also using 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 between 1 and 3 days 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.
Does burning hydrogen produce NOx?
The burning of any fuel, including hydrogen can produce NOx. Sources of NOx include buses, planes, trains and gas boilers.
The latest testing has shown that hydrogen boilers, developed by leading manufacturers, produce NOx levels less than that of natural gas boilers. This includes the hydrogen boilers developed by Baxi and Worcester Bosch as part of the UK Government backed Hy4Heat study. These are same boiler manufacturers we’re using for H100 Fife and you can find out more information, including on NOx testing as part of Hy4Heat, here:
Any hydrogen boilers installed in the H100 Fife trial will be subject to the same regulatory requirements as natural gas boilers under the Gas Appliances (Enforcement) and Miscellaneous Amendments Regulations 2018 (GAR), including testing for NOx emissions.
We will also carry out further testing of NOx emissions for other hydrogen appliances planned for the trial. Only appliances that meet GAR requirements and any new hydrogen standards will be used in the live trial.