Fife College is a new flagship learning environment within the Dunfermline Learning Campus comprising three interconnected buildings totalling nearly 20,000m². The completed campus provides state-of-the-art teaching and learning spaces for students, staff, businesses, and the wider community, including a dedicated Centre for Innovation and Events designed to support skills development and economic growth across Fife.

The project was the first tertiary education development delivered under the Net Zero Public Sector Buildings Standard (NZPSBS), setting a benchmark for low-carbon public-sector design in Scotland. From the outset, the campus was required to be net-zero ready, with very low operational energy demand and strict embodied carbon targets of no more than 650kgCO₂e/m² across the development.

Our involvement began at RIBA Stage 2, allowing us to influence the building services strategy at an early stage. Working closely with the design team and main contractor, Balfour Beatty, we helped shape a fully electrified M&E solution that eliminated fossil fuels and future-proofed the campus as Scotland’s electricity grid continues to decarbonise. Space heating is provided by air-source heat pumps, with domestic hot water generated by efficient electric systems tailored to different building uses. Natural and mixed-mode ventilation were prioritised, with mechanical systems used only where required, reducing energy demand while maintaining excellent indoor air quality.

A strong focus was placed on buildability, digital delivery, and off-site manufacturing. Rooftop plantrooms, electrical switch rooms, and risers were prefabricated off site in our factory in Stirling, improving quality, safety, and programme certainty. Installation was tracked using digital reality capture and laser scanning, enabling accurate coordination, performance modelling, and embodied carbon assessment as the project progressed.

Embodied carbon was carefully managed through material selection, efficient services design, and reduced on-site waste. All buildings operate entirely on electricity, delivering a highly efficient, resilient campus with reduced running costs.

As a pathfinder project for the NZPSBS, the Fife College Dunfermline Campus demonstrates how early collaboration, innovative services design, and modern construction methods can deliver high-performance, low-carbon learning environments that benefit both users and the wider community.

The new £333million TECA has the largest fuel cell installation in the UK and on a par with the largest in Europe.

The Event Complex Aberdeen (TECA) is a multi-hundred million pound project that aims to attract millions of visitors a year on top of maintaining a low-carbon footprint through the use of renewable and sustainable energy technology.  TECA is expected to contribute an additional 4.5 million visitors, £113 million of visitor spend and £63m net GVA to the Scottish economy. It will also result in the creation of 352 full-time-equivalent permanent positions by year 10 of operations.

The core of TECA will function on the nation’s largest hydrogen fuel cell installation. The hydrogen fuel cells run on low-emission hydrogen fuels and have a total electrical output of 1.4MW, on par with some of the largest hydrogen fuel cell installations in Europe offering an independent source of reliable, affordable, low-emission heat and power for the 150-acre site. Hydrogen power-sources are beginning to take the forefront in renewable technologies, something that FES is proud to be a part of.

Adding to this renewable source of energy is an anaerobic power-plant that will use food waste, agricultural crops and other waste to produce biofuel that will be used to feed electricity into TECA.

The energy centre includes the design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of 3no 460kW Purecell® Hydrogen fuel cell units, natural gas boilers, 1200kWe CHP, absorption chillers, chilled water chillers, control system and associated equipment.

 The HV infrastructure works include a high voltage point of connection, high voltage ring main and associated substations, transformers and switchgear. This included the design of a 33kV substation to SSE adoptable standards.