Eon develops wind to hydrogen plant

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://renews.biz/story.php?page_id=74&news_id=972

Eon develops wind to hydrogen plant

11 November 2011

Eon is developing a pilot plant in North East Germany designed to convert wind energy into hydrogen which will be stored in the country’s gas grid.

The company said it is investing more than €5m in the project as well as further research into this technology.

The plant will produce about 360m³ of hydrogen an hour from 2013, according to Eon.

…

Eon technology & development board member Klaus-Dieter Maubach said: "We need new storage capacities so that we can further increase the share of weather-dependent wind power in our generation portfolio in coming years. Using the existing gas infrastructure to store hydrogen is a promising approach in the long run, enabling us to combine our strengths as a power and gas company."

[kristopher]

1. A largely futile effort by large corporations to insert themselves where they aren't needed

In most cases the storage is far more efficiently done by transmitting the energy via electricity to the end user where application specific technologies deliver far more bang for the buck.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. This addresses a grid with a large proportion of intermittent renewable energy

(It is bulk energy storage.)

[kristopher]

3. I know exactly what it is. My criticism stands.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. I know, I know, they should use “Rock Batteries…”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7781564&mesg_id=7781564

[kristopher]

5. That's one alternative that is far better suited to the present infrastructure.

There are a wide range of others, also. Large scale storage is a small player in a distributed renewable energy infrastructure - around 4-5% of the grid's capacity. The reason that is so low is that the distributed nature of a range of generation sources on the grid is itself a far more effective means of smoothing variability than was thought when everyone started chasing hydrogen, the other is that it turns out that once we started looking, small scale end user applications oreiented around improvements in energy efficiency can be designed around storage far more easily than anyone had considered.

Hydrogen has a place - an important place - but it isn't going to be the centerpiece energy carrier of our evolving energy system, electricity is. Be an adult and face it.

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. We shall see…

“Be an adult,” and face the possibility that you might be proven wrong.

[kristopher]

7. The results are already in.

You just haven't studied the data or you don't want to admit it. Probably both.

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. Me and a bunch of people at DoE

See (for example):

https://www1.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/pdfs/46719.pdf

Technical Report
NREL/TP-560-46719 November 2009

Lifecycle Cost Analysis of Hydrogen Versus Other Technologies for Electrical Energy Storage

D. Steward, G. Saur, M. Penev, and T. Ramsden

…

4 Conclusions

The results of this study enable comparison of the cost of hydrogen and several competing technologies for energy storage, including the cost of producing excess hydrogen for use in vehicles. Each technology also has various non-economic benefits and drawbacks.

4.1 Energy Arbitrage Benchmarking Cost Analysis

Hydrogen for energy storage is potentially cost competitive with battery systems but not competitive with pumped hydro or CAES systems for the scenarios evaluated here. Figure 30 summarizes the comparison of levelized (annualized total capital and operating) cost of delivered electricity for hydrogen (green bars) and competing technologies (blue bars). The bottom of the bars represents the low end of the range for the low-cost cases, and the top of the bars represents the high end of the range for the high-cost cases. The numerals shown are the nominal values of the mid-range cases; these mid-range values do not represent a statistical determination of most-probable costs.

The cost range for each system reflects the cost ranges found in the literature and estimates of potential cost reductions as technologies develop. The fuel cell scenario cost range reflects the comparative immaturity of fuel cell technologies for this application. It is anticipated that costs for fuel cells will decrease as the technology matures and is implemented in more applications. Hydrogen combustion turbines could prove to be viable for energy storage applications and have the potential for providing additional flexibility to utilities through co-firing of mixtures of natural gas and hydrogen. The fuel cell systems have a relatively large range: from $0.18/kWh to $0.50/kWh for the low and high base cases (without sensitivities), respectively. The difference is primarily due to the potential for significant cost reductions for fuel cells in the near future. The battery systems are expected to decrease in cost as the technologies become better established. However, it is unlikely that a nickel cadmium system would be economical for the scenario evaluated here.

Figure 30. Ranges of LCOE for electricity storage systems
…

This report is from 2009, the work of Nocera and company would make the hydrogen storage options even more attractive.
http://nocera.mit.edu/Publications2011

http://energy.gov/videos/faces-recovery-act-sun-catalytix
http://arpa-e.energy.gov/ProgramsProjects/OtherProjects/DirectSolarFuels/AffordableEnergyfromWaterandSunlight.aspx

Sun Catalytix Corporation: Affordable Energy from Water and Sunlight

Organization Sun Catalytix Corporation
Website www.suncatalytix.com
Point of Contact Dr. Daniel Nocera

With ARPA-E’s financial support, Sun Catalytix is developing a versatile, inexpensive, efficient, self-repairing, and scalable method for storage of renewable energy. Sun Catalytix will exploit a novel water oxidation catalyst that employs earth-abundant elements to generate hydrogen and oxygen from tap water or clean sea water. ARPA-E funding has enabled Sun Catalytix to move the novel catalyst technology from the academic laboratory to a commercial setting for practical application. Specifically, Sun Catalytix aims to design and develop a new class of electrolyzer and photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) devices, including an inexpensive 100 Watt electrolyzer and a direct solar-to-fuel PEC module. It is anticipated that both devices will be constructed from materials that support mass production, operate efficiently using readily-available water supplies, and serve as robust test-beds for innovative new products. If successful, this project will allow economical and distributed energy storage from renewable energy supply using water as a feedstock, and enable continuous power in off-grid locations at much lower cost than incumbent technologies.

…

[kristopher]

9. You can continue to cherry pick your sources, but that is what you are doing.

Act like a scientist and look for the reasons it will NOT fulfill the claims in that 2009 paper.

[OKIsItJustMe]

10. OK, you do the same

Provide the reasons why it will work. (That’s a lot easier to do.)

[kristopher]

11. I did.

I explained why it was suitable for heavy transport. I've also explaiined ad nauseum why it isn't competitive more broadly when compared to alternatives.