hydrogen is key to large-scale renewable energy storage, says german expert - electrical energy storage systems
Think seriously about renewable energy?
Then you have to think about hydrogen.
According to Dirk Uwe Sauer, a German energy storage expert who recently visited Toronto.
Germany hopes to cut carbon emissions by 2050, but has given up on both coal and nuclear.
Therefore, it must obtain electricity from renewable energy by the deadline
Sur, a professor at the Aachen Institute of Electrical Electronics and Electrical Drive, said it rose from about 22 cents today.
Considering the variability of renewable energy
The sun is not always shining, and the wind is not always blowing --
This means how to store renewable energy when it has sufficient output and when it is not sufficient.
Related: Missing links for storing renewable energy batteries can handle short
Long-term storage in hours.
But in order to achieve Germany's ambitious goals, engineers have to figure out ways to store enough renewable energy to power the grid for weeks.
A solution known as "pumped storage" is: "When the power is sufficient, inject the water up into the large reservoir and then let the water flow back through the generator for an hour, when needed in a few days or weeks.
However, the choice of pumped storage is limited by geographical location.
"There is only one other realistic option left:" This energy can only be stored in gas systems more or less, "Sawyer said.
We won't do this with batteries.
We will not do this to the hydropower station.
Sawyer envisioned a huge facility, of which surplus energy from renewable sources (
Or any other generator)
An electrolytic device for decomposing water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.
Hydrogen is then stored in underground caves.
It can be used directly for fuel cell power generation, or it can be converted to methane for power supply to conventional gas turbine generators.
"What we're talking about is a cave with a volume of 0. 5 billion. It’s a large-
There is no doubt that scale technology . "
This made him somewhat inconsistent with some of the advocates of renewable energy, who believe that the scattered power grid is powered by countless micro-grids. generators.
"This is a centralized technology and it's huge in scale," he said . "
"It is said that everything should be dispersed when we use renewable energy.
This is definitely not what I believe.
Although Sawyer believes
Hydrogen storage at scale is part of a clean energy system solution and he recognizes that this is only part of a complex puzzle.
Cheaper, simpler technology is also part of the equation, he stressed.
Promoting energy conservation is one of them.
For example, Canadian households use more than twice as much electricity as German households.
The cheapest kilowatts are usually not used.
Projects that cut demand during peak times also provide good value for money.
Hydrogen storage is more expensive than storage, but to get close to carbon, two ways are needed, says Sayer.
Free power system.
He admitted it was more than we are paying at the moment.
"It is clear that future energy supplies will never be as cheap as they are today," he said bluntly . ".
"There's nothing like digging 100-million-years-
Burn old coal or oil for no reason.
He estimates that Germany must invest about $33 billion over the next 40 years in order to achieve the future of hydrogen he sees.
He said that this is an investment of about $10 per person per year, "which is affordable for countries with relatively high levels of personal wealth, such as Canada or Germany.