H100 Fife Project trial delay: EIR release

Information requested

As SCOGOV are part-funding the H100 Fife trial I noted with keen interest that the project may be delayed by up to one year. I am of the view that hydrogen in a household setting is wrongheaded from both a consumer cost and safety standpoint. I am requesting that SCOGOV inform the public as to the specific reasons for the delay as this may have a significant bearing on public acceptance.

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA. This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.  We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Response to your request

The answer to your question is below:

Hydrogen use as an energy vector is not new; it has been used routinely in Scotland in industry for many decades. However, the use of hydrogen in domestic heating is new and needs to be demonstrated. The Scottish Government has provided £6.9m grant funding to the world-first H100 Fife Project, which will help us understand the role hydrogen can play in decarbonising heat using the gas network. Further information on H100 can be found at: www.h100fife.co.uk.

SGN have confirmed that H100 is taking longer than planned to deliver due to its facing similar supply chain, production, and procurement challenges to other major construction projects. They are aiming for the project to go live from Summer 2025.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.