Scotland opens first hydrogen homes: Will heating bills be lower?

The UK has reached a milestone in the clean energy transition as its first neighbourhood-scale hydrogen homes are opened.

A group of three demonstrator homes in the east of Fife, Scotland, were officially opened by First Minister John Swinney.

The homes showcase how hydrogen can be used to provide both heating and cooking. Dubbed the H100 project, the plan is to scale it up to as many as 300 homes in the coming months.

What is a hydrogen home and how do they work?

Heating is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 22 per cent of the UK’s total emissions. Hydrogen is seen as a key technology for decarbonising this sector.

Switching to a hydrogen supply requires new home appliances, including cookers and boilers. Bosch introduced its first hydrogen cooking hob, notable for its ‘invisible flame,’ which will be tested in the homes at the H100 Fife project.

For the resident, a hydrogen home has little difference from a regular home. The appliances work in the same way, with the bulk of the changes happening on the supplier side. As such, it’s seen as one of the least invasive ways of decarbonising home heating.

How is hydrogen being used in homes around the world?

The EU’s hydrogen strategy and REPowerEU plan sets out the position of the bloc on hydrogen technologies. Specifically, it details that, by 2030, Europe wants to be importing 10 million tonnes and producing 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen. By 2050, it should cover 10 per cent of the EU’s energy needs.

Despite the clock ticking on these targets, uptake of hydrogen at a domestic level has been low, with only a handful of small-scale projects underway.

The first hydrogen-powered house in Europe was completed in 2022 in Southern Italy. The student building in Benevento uses hydrogen not only for heating but also to generate the electricity the building requires.

In the Netherlands, several pilot projects are underway, including the connection of 12 occupied homes in Lochem to hydrogen for heating in 2022. In 2023, 33 homes in Wagenborgen were switched to hydrogen heating. And in the northern Dutch city of Hoogeveen, 80 to 100 new-built homes will be connected to the hydrogen network.

In Helsinki, construction is underway for the 3H2 Helsinki Hydrogen Hub which will produce around three megawatts of green hydrogen a year. This will then be used as fuel for trucks, while the excess heat from hydrogen production will be used to heat local homes.

Not all hydrogen is good hydrogen

At the point of use, hydrogen is an incredibly clean fuel. Unlike coal and gas, it produces no carbon dioxide when burned.

However, not all hydrogen is good hydrogen. Generating hydrogen uses electrolysis to separate hydrogen from oxygen in water. If the electricity used in this process is non-renewable, then the benefits from the use of hydrogen fuel are negated.

At the moment, hydrogen represents around two per cent of the EU’s energy mix, and almost all of it is produced by fossil fuels. The European Parliament estimates that around 70 to 100 million tonnes of CO2 a year are generated in the production of the current hydrogen supplies.

In order to make hydrogen sustainable, electrolysis must be performed using renewable energy. Known as green hydrogen, this is the only truly sustainable form of hydrogen but accounts for less than one per cent of total hydrogen production today.

ADVERTISEMENT

According to the International Energy Agency, the amount of renewable energy required to make all hydrogen green would be around 3,000 terawatt hours (TWh). That’s roughly equivalent to the electricity demand for the whole of Europe.

For H100 Fife, the hydrogen supply is being produced using renewable electricity from a local offshore wind site.

Does hydrogen cut heating bills?

Hydrogen is the most abundant element on earth, but it’s hard to manage. Safe transportation and storage require massive infrastructure development and close monitoring.

As early as 2022, studies were warning against overestimating the benefits of hydrogen in domestic settings. The Regulatory Assistance Project, an energy think tank, reviewed 32 studies of hydrogen and concluded that it was unlikely to play a major role in home heating.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Using hydrogen for heating may sound attractive at first glance,” says Jan Rosenow, co-author of the study. “However, all of the independent research on this topic comes to the same conclusion: heating with hydrogen is a lot less efficient and more expensive than alternatives such as heat pumps, district heating and solar thermal.”

More recently, a report by Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) published in January found that burning hydrogen poses health and safety risks for residents and is an inefficient way to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

“Not only does burning hydrogen in homes pose a health and safety risk but it will also delay electrification, resulting in the prolonged combustion of gas in homes,” said Suzanne Mattei, IEEFA energy policy analyst and co-author of the report. “Plans to use hydrogen in residential buildings also overlook the challenges hydrogen use is facing due to market competition and infrastructure challenges.”