As per Euronews.green, the Antonio Meucci high school in Carpi is the educational unit to make the switch to the clean-power alternative. The hydrogen boiler was designed in 2020 by Coopservice and the unit itself was started in January of last year.

Green hydrogen is produced with the help of renewable-generated energy, meaning that is the cleanest and most desirable form of hydrogen and European officials aim to make it more ubiquitous throughout the region, lowering its production costs. Germany and Spain are so far regarded as having the best potential when it comes to produce green hydrogen.

Annalisa Vita, the engineer behind the project, said that "green hydrogen is produced from the renewable energy generated by the photovoltaic [solar] park which we built on the roof of the gym."

The hydrogen boiler can also work as an energy storage solution, enabling the school to use it to produce electricity during the days when the sun is more absent.

The project was very expensive, though, which is why you don't see many schools or buildings, in general, use hydrogen boilers to generate energy. The total costs of the project are estimated at 350,000 euros. At the same time, strict safety regulations imposed by the EU make it difficult to implement these systems, while energy efficiency suffers.

"We designed the boiler for future use of 100 per cent hydrogen, but currently it operates at 20 per cent hydrogen and 80 per cent methane due to safety rules", explains Vita.

As far as residential heating is concerned, heat pumps are better than hydrogen boilers, generally, since they are cheaper to implement, as well as being safer.

Hamed Aslannejad, assistant professor of sustainable energy at Utrecht University, said that "hydrogen is a good solution, but it is not a solution to everything. For places that do not require high temperatures like houses and gyms, electric heat pumps can be more energy efficient and as sustainable as green hydrogen. But for places where higher temperatures are needed, such as glass and steel factories, green hydrogen is better."