Hydrogen Economy

berwickshirelimited is part of the pioneering hydrogen economy that is moving towards offering realistic alternatives to existing carbon technology.

Level-4 project – Home Energy Centre

berwickshirelimited’s Managing Director, Alastair Brown, is part of a European Consortium that brought about the first installation, in the UK and Europe, of a hydrogen Home Energy Centre (in 2005).

This system uses Micro-Combined Heat and Power (Micro-CHP), fuelled by a PEM fuel cell, to provide energy to an otherwise-ordinary family property in a ‘live’ residential trial.

Known as the ‘Level-4’ it is part of the BHA Group’s ongoing evolution in renewable energy systems, and was a vital stepping stone in our development of hydrogen technology. Using hydrogen converted from natural gas (known as ‘black’ hydrogen), it is the forerunner to our current ‘H-5’ project.

H-5 ecohome – ‘green hydrogen’

The ‘H-5’ is a detached, family house combining PVs (photovoltaics) and wind energy to produce hydrogen, which is stored onsite and used by a fuel cell to produce electricity and heat for the home.

This project develops our use of hydrogen, producing ‘green hydrogen’ (from renewable resources). It leads the way in creating a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, and reducing grid dependence, by storing hydrogen as an energy vector.

The project has been supported by the Scottish Government under its Renewable Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Support Scheme, and is believed to be one of the first residential installations of its type in Europe. The project is almost complete and more information will be available on this website later in the year. If you would like to read more right now, click for the planning context statement, or email us at hydrogen@b-h-a.org.uk.

We also have plans in incubation for an ‘H-6’.