This year, around 300 houses in Fife, Scotland will switch over to hydrogen for heating, hot water and cooking in the H100 Fife trial. After the cancellation of similar trials in the English towns of Whitby and Redcar, Scotland has become an outlier in the UK with its plan to trial hydrogen in homes.
The evidence against hydrogen for heating is conclusive. The influential UK Climate Change Committee stated in its 2025 Scotland’s Carbon Budgets that there is “no role for hydrogen in heating for buildings.”
In this short briefing, we summarise the evidence on hydrogen heating related to costs, safety, emissions and energy efficiency. We conclude that:
- Hydrogen will increase energy bills.
- Hydrogen is less safe in homes than electric heat pumps.
- Hydrogen emits air pollutants and is a global warming agent.
- Hydrogen uses far more energy than electric heat pumps.
We recommend that the Scottish Government removes support for the Fife trial to align with the overwhelming evidence against the use of hydrogen for heating, and instead directs support towards clean, efficient electric technologies like heat pumps and heat networks, as recommended by expert bodies.
More broadly, we urge the UK Government to provide certainty on heat pumps and heat networks as the best route forward to decarbonise heating by confirming that there will be no role for hydrogen in home heating, as previously advised by the UK Climate Change Committee and the National Infrastructure Commission.
You can read the full briefing here.
