The state that built the world’s first grid-level ‘big battery’ is embarking on even more ambitious green energy projects. It is the world’s largest hydrogen power plant fed by an electrolysis facility that is 10 times larger than any power plant currently in operation.
South Australia has made impressive progress in decarbonising with its vast solar and wind potential, with almost 70% of its electricity generated from renewable sources. Expected to cross the 100% threshold well before the projected 2030, by 2021 the state, with a population of 1.7 million, will meet its operational needs 180 days a year from renewable energy alone. meets 100% of
In fact, it was one of the first places in the world to face over-generation problems when a storm late last year brought down long-distance transmission lines used to export excess renewable energy to neighboring Victoria. There is also one. Just to keep grid energy levels under control, Australian energy market operators have turned off many of the state’s remotely controllable solar resources and forced consumers to turn off as many high-power electrical appliances as possible. Even asking for the switch to be turned on had to be rushed. .
By working with Tesla and Neoen to build the world’s first large grid-level battery plant in 2017, the state has established itself as a global leader in grid-level energy storage and renewable power generation, with several others. Approved that large-scale energy. Storage projects in the form of larger batteries and pumped storage projects on the back of the success of the first battery facility.
But that new project takes an even bigger leap into the unknown, and the financial payoff is far less obvious. With no company willing to take the lead, the South Australian government wants to have it up and running by 2025, and he has fully funded an A$600 million (US$415 million) hydrogen power plant near Whyalla. intend to do something.
The plant will absorb excess renewable energy from the grid and feed it into a huge 250 MW electrolysis plant (10 times the number of electrolysis plants currently in operation in the world) to produce a large amount of hydrogen. Store onsite. Then, when renewable energy declines in the evening or winter, that hydrogen is returned to a 200 MW power plant where it is burned or converted to drive steam turbines, thereby putting energy back into the grid. It’s back to electricity via a giant fuel cell stack.
However, as a pure short-term energy storage and delivery technology, hydrogen is frankly inferior to batteries. You are effectively throwing away half of your precious renewable energy in this way. It’s also a hassle to store unless you take extra steps to convert it to ammonia or other more manageable solids or liquids. It is unlikely to compete with larger batteries on an LCoS (Levelized Cost of Storage) basis. This is the main reason why no one else is working on a similar project.
So why put this kind of money into what appears to be a waste of national finances, energy and water resources? It could serve in longer timeframes than batteries as a critical backup to a fully renewable grid during prolonged energy droughts.
However, the state government also appears to see the project as a way to kick-start a broader hydrogen scene in the region, with a focus on transportation, green steel, domestic gas supply, manufacturing or export projects. With such a short timeline – the proposal is due next month, so the plant is expected to be from green light to operational status in about two years – the government has the potential to launch a broad hydrogen-based supply chain. I have set a task with , prove the advantages and disadvantages of hydrogen as a grid-level storage solution.
Source: Government of South Australia via Renew Economy
