Hydrogenics Hydrogen Generation Compliments Wind Power

Using wind power to make hydrogen is a technology that has been promoted to mitigate the intermittency of wind power generation for some time.  Canadian Hydrogenics (TSX:HYG.TO; NASDAQ:HYGS) announced that it has sold its fourth hydrogen station that is powered by wind energy. The following selling points are claimed: 

• The cleanest way to make hydrogen is to use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen
• The cleanest and most sustainable source of electricity is from renewable energy sources such as wind power....wind-hydrogen
• Reduced dependence on imported energy
• No effect on climate
• Hydrogen generation from wind power, and its subsequents use, produces zero emissions
• Wind offers low-cost renewable energy
• Wind is and intermittent energy source - hydrogen is a way to 'store' wind-generated electricity
• Hydrogen provides a means to match wind supply and energy demand
• Equipment is quiet and has low visual impact

On Jan. 31, 2006 Hydrogenics announced that the company has been awarded a contract for over EUR 500,000 (US $600,000) to deliver a hydrogen station to Gas Natural SDG, a Spanish-based energy services multinational. Gas Natural will use a Hydrogenics' HySTAT^™-A Hydrogen Station at the Sotavento Galicia wind farm to produce up to 60 Nm3/hr (~2,100 Nft3/hr) of hydrogen. The hydrogen will be used to fuel an internal combustion engine generator, which in turn will supply electricity to the electric grid.

Presently, the Sotavento Galicia wind farm produces more electricity than can be delivered to the grid and the excess "green" electricity cannot be stored or delivered to the electrical grid, resulting in lost revenue. By powering the HySTAT Hydrogen Station with the excess wind energy, Gas Natural will now provide the means to capture high value electricity that otherwise would have been lost and utilize it to make more electricity for the grid than was achievable in the past. This hydrogen station, complete with outdoor housing and auxiliary equipment, will be installed and commissioned by September, 2006.

On January 12, 2006 the company announced that they were awarded a contract by Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Bismarck, N.D., to supply an electrolyzer-based hydrogen refueling station for installation in Minot, N.D.. In addition to the core electrolyzer module, Hydrogenics is supplying compression, storage and dispenser equipment as part of the contract. The hydrogen produced will be used to refuel hydrogen-powered vehicles, demonstrating a linkage between wind power and vehicle refueling.

Prince Edward Island Project

The most detail available for a project is for the Prince Edward Island project.

In April 2005 Hydrogenics and Prince Edward Island Energy Corporation announced that they will lead a consortium of industry and government partners to develop Canada's first wind-hydrogen village demonstration - the Prince Edward Island (PEI) Wind-Hydrogen Village Project.  The $10.3 million, three year, first phase project is receiving an investment of $5.1 million through the Hydrogen Early Adopters (h2EA) program of Technology Partnerships Canada. The Government of Prince Edward Island will invest $2.9 million in the project.  These are the key components of the project.

• Dedicated wind capacity use to power electrolysis-based hydrogen production
• Large-scale hydrogen station to fuel vehicles and stationary hydrogen engine
• Fuel cells and hydrogen internal combustion engines to generate electricity for utility building and houses
• Proprietary leading edge wind-diesel controls software optimizes wind-hydrogen system
• Additional wind turbines to compliment three existing turbines at the Atlantic Wind Test Site
• John Deere fuel cell powered work vehicle delivered
• Three hydrogen internal combustion engine shuttle buses
• Grid power back-up
• Two small-scale generation units to power vehicles and operational equipment, one now one in later phase
• Initially 8-10 houses powered with additional 10 more in a latter phase
• Two hydrogen powered utility vehicles, one now and one in a latter phase
• One commercial building and one farm to be hydrogen powered in a latter phase
• Hydrogen powered tour boat in a latter phase

There are other energy storage solutions that have been used for wind power such as flow batteries and compressed air energy storage (CAES). It seems to me that the advantage of hydrogen generation is that it is the most developed technology, not necessarily the most energy efficient. The use of internal combustion engines, which are less efficient than fuel cells, in the hydrogen systems might mean that fuel cells are currently too expensive or they are harder to sell because they less well proven.

Resources:

Hydrogenics Corporation, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Hydrogenics sells another hydrogen station for wind app., Clean Break, Feb. 2, 2006
Hydrogenics Awarded Contract by Gas Natural to Deliver Hydrogen Station to Spanish Wind Farm, Hydrogenics press release, Jan. 31, 2006
Wind-Hydrogen Village - Prince Edward Island, Hydrogenics press release, April 12, 2005

Technorati tags: hydrogen, wind power, energy, technology

Comments

[Jason C.]

Hey Fraser:
I've been impressed with the depth of coverage of energy technology on your blog. I've been reading about Hydrogenics and like the idea of producing hydrogen from clean energy sources. A lot of potential for them. I would even invest, but they have about 95 million shares outstanding and they're way off from reaching close to that in annual revenue.

I just published a post about the retail "price" of utility electricity vs installation price of solar on my blog. I would appreciate any insights if you have the time.

Nice blog!!!

Jason C.

solardweller.blogspot.com/2006/02/eureka-priceof-solar-closer-to-utility.html

[Thomas]

As someone who's totally in favor of renewable energy, especially wind energy since it generates huge revenue here in Denmark, I must say I am not i favor of hydrogen as storage. I my opinion, hydrogen storage is *only* interesting for small islands. The huge energy loss (65 - 80%!) means that 3-4 times as many wind turbines are needed.

Btw, the losses indicated above assume highly efficient fuel cells are developed and sold, which does not seem likely at the moment.

Pretty much all other solutions are better.

First and foremost, we should strive to use wind energy directly, when and where it's available. That calls for a degree of flexible consumption (e.g. iron ore melting plants running in periods of strong wind). Secondly, investment in large (DC) power lines would enable us to move electricity from places of excess production to places lacking power. Such power lines improve the economy of electrical grids even without renewable energy. Only as the last resort should electricity be stored. My suggestion is to use plug-in-hybrids as storage. Make no mistake about it, the storage capacity of plug-in-hybrids will be massive, compared to fluctuations renewable electricity production.

Another thing about renewable energy, particular wind power:
With the possible exception of Denmark and Northern Germany, all other regions in the world can easily start building wind farms, full galore, without reaching the limit of their respective grids anytime soon. My guess is that plug-in-hybrids may well start rolling in the streets before then.

I think linking renewable energy with the hydrogen/fuel cell myth, while comforting for some, only hurts renewable in the long run, simply because it is an inferior solution.

Luckily, this blog presents hundreds of viable alternatives :-)

Sorry, if I seem harsch in my critique of hydrogen, but that's how I feel.

-Thomas

[Jim from The Energy Blog]

Thomas - I am not going to defend hydrogen, I just try to provide information on what technology is available in as an objective way as I can. I do agree with you that most experts don't see a problem with the intermittency of wind power until it is over 20% of grid capacity. If you can find a way to utilize all the power as it is generated, all the better.

[Thomas]

Jim,
I think it's only best that you stay as neutral as possible, and leave the harsh language to us cranks ;-)

I have a whole vision played out of how at least 80% renewable energy could be achieved in 25-30 years. Only thing is, it's quite complex and involved, and I don't have a presentable version on paper yet. But my previous post gives you the highly condensed highligts:

1) Increase flexibility of consumption
2) Distribute across large distances (because the larger the are, the smaller fluctuations ensue)
3) Use vehicles for storage, because they need to store the energy anyway.

I never meant to offend, I guess I'm just too passionate about this subject.

Keep up the good work!

-Thomas

[JesseJenkins]

"There are other energy storage solutions that have been used for wind power such as flow batteries and compressed air energy storage (CAES). It seems to me that the advantage of hydrogen generation is that it is the most developed technology, not necessarily the most energy efficient."

I think that is a good insight, Jim. Storing energy as H2 via electrolysis and then back to electricity via fuel cells is a pretty inefficient process. Assuming 70% efficiency for electrolysis and 50% efficiency for fuel cells (that's pretty generous for today's fuel cells but future cells could be better than that so we'll go with 50% as an in between number), you only get 35% of the electricity you put in back out as usable electricity.

In other words, as Thomas points out, you need about 3 times as many wind turbines as you would need if you were using the wind directly. Now of course, you can't always use the wind directly - that's why you need energy storage in the first place I would hope (i.e. I hope you are not wasting 2/3rds of you energy by making H2 when you don't have to) - but there are other more efficient energy storage alternatives as you mentioned - flow batteries and CAES or Pumped Hydro where geologically possible. According to the figures in your Vandadium Redox Flow Batteries post, round-trip efficiency for energy storage in VRBs is 70-78% - i.e. twice as good as storage as H2!

I'm certainly excited to see owners and operators of wind farms starting to couple them with energy storage to help overcome the intermitency of wind power, whatever technology they chose for storage. However, I hope that they are not ignoring better alternatives, simply because the hype over hydrogen is louder and is drowning out more viable alternatives. That would simply be a shame...

[Jon]

I'm with Jesse all the way. Redox flow cells will blow hydrogen out of the water once they're improved. Hydrogen is a stopgap at best, in the transition from fossil power to renewable power.

[Thomas]

Of course, if you intend on basing our electricity supply on a single wind turbine (say on an island), wind intermittency is not to be underestimated. But mostly, it is vastly overestimated.

If you wish to learn more about integration of wind energy into the grid, I recommend taking a look the report made by the European Wind Energy Association: www.ewea.org. The report can be found on the front page. Although not totally impartial, they are probably the foremost experts on the subject.

Quite often wind energy is blamed for the total uncertaincy of balancing power on a grid. On page 63 of the report they stipulate that uncertainty of power demand and output from conventional power plants combined, on a 4-hour lead time basis is around 2.5%. The corresponding uncertainty of wind energy is 4% (based on 10% wind energy production). Combining the two gives a total uncertainty of 4.72%, i.e. less than twice the uncertainty of a grid with no wind energy at all.

The trick is, as I have stated in previous posts, to share renewable energy over areas as large as possible to smooth out local differences.

Or, if the uncertainty of production from wind turbines is 4%, build 4% more turbines and run them at 96% capacity. That leaves a buffer of the remaining 4% (I am aware that will not cover all situations). Output from wind farms can easily be turned down (se page 48 in the report).

In fact, in many cases it is probably cheaper to build excess wind capacity to remove the problem of shortage and just not run at full speed at high winds, than having complex storage facilities with questionable efficiencies.

If not, it is nice to know they exist! :-)

-Thomas

[Antonio]

hi guys
I've found this really interesting video podcast's feed about hydrogen as energy source and related Hydrogen Olympics:

apple:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=115485761&s=143450

xml:
http://www.gommunity.com/podcast/torino/podcast.xml

cheers