The neighbourhood leading a green energy revolution

Image source, ORE Catapult

The National Grid wants to use hydrogen to partly power homes in the UK within three years. A small neighbourhood on the east coast of Scotland is playing a key role in the energy revolution.

A project called H 100 will power about 300 homes in Buckhaven and Methil with green hydrogen gas. The scheme will last for five and a half years.

In the next three years, the National Grid plans to blend hydrogen with natural gas in its distribution network for the first time in its history.

Standing in the former Fife coal mining village of Buckhaven as a cold wind howls round buildings made of local grey stone is hard to imagine that this is the center of a revolutionary experiment.

It is impossible to ignore when you walk towards Buckhaven waterfront. A wind turbine that is 200 metres in diameter is just off the coast, making a loud swoosh every couple of seconds as the wind is picked up and thrown into the sea.

The region has a long, proud history of energy production from its mines, but now the focus is on more eco-friendly natural resources.

The wind turbine's power will be used to turn water into hydrogen gas and oxygen. The hydrogen will be pumped into people's homes after being stored in secure tanks.

The project is partly funded by the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets.

The project hopes to save more than 2,650 tonnes of CO2, equivalent to half the homes taking their cars off the road, because heating properties is thought to account for up to a third of UK carbon emissions.

Projects like this are not seen as the solution. The government's approach to decarbonising home heating lacked clear direction according to MPs on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee. They said current policies weren't on the scale required and that hydrogen wasn't a good solution for home heating.

A fitness instructor in Buckhaven can see the turbine from her front room.

She says that it is going to send power and energy to the housing system.

Despite paying the same for hydrogen gas as natural gas, Ms Cunningham thinks that rising gas prices and the war in Ukraine will bring them down in the long term.

Hopefully we can get a more sustainable and stable energy source through hydrogen energy. Ms Cunningham believes that Buckhaven will give new life to an area that has been dominated by the coal industry for the past century.

We have taken a lot from the world and it is time that we move forward on different types of energy sources, like the hydrogen energy.

The east coast of Scotland is famous for its wind, but the location of the town made it easier to install pipework.

The H 100 Fife project is being led by SGN's Angus McIntosh. He thinks hydrogen can reduce bills.

The cost of producing low-carbon hydrogen is more expensive than buying natural gas, but that is about to change according to Mr. McIntosh.

Scotland is blessed with a lot of wind and rain, as well as natural resources.

With industrial hydrogen production hubs still to be completed, academics don't think this would work on a large scale.

The project can be scaled up if it is able to create a market for hydrogen production. The aim of the project is to prove that hydrogen is attractive to customers.

The plan is for theNG to blend at small percentages of hydrogen in 2025, but it wants to get up to 20% as soon as the hydrogen is available.

The UK government wants to achieve 5GW ofhydrogen production capacity by the year 2030. The amount of gas consumed by three million households in the UK each year is equivalent to this.

This is where blue hydrogen will be required to do this. The carbon is buried under the sea. Natural gas is still being used despite being described as low-carbon hydrogen, which is not an official definition.

Blending is taking the natural gas we have today in the network, starting with a small quantity of hydrogen, and we mix it up and push that down the network instead. The user will not notice a difference at low levels, and we will build that level up over time.

Some of the network's biggest pipes are being tested to blend hydrogen. The grid wants to replace natural gas.

When natural gas is no longer used in the network, it will be replaced with low-carbon hydrogen produced from wind or where the CO2 emissions are captured and stored, according to Mr Green.

The beauty of hydrogen is that we can store it, and when the wind is not blowing or the sun is not shining, we can keep hold of the energy and run our network.

Green hydrogen could be on a par with fossil fuels by the year 2030, according to Dr. Edlmann, a researcher on hydrogen funded by the University of Edinburgh.

There is a very big challenge ahead of us. She says there is a lot to do because the current generation is very minimal and only 4% of our hydrogen is generated from green hydrogen.

We need to do more of it. As the market grows, industry will invest in this and we need to create the hydrogen market. Industry will come and do the work. The hydrogen will be generated if the market is there. We are not quite there yet.