But perhaps hydrogen’s greatest potential lies in its ability to store energy for rainy days. Fossil fuels are prehistoric stores of energy from sunlight, while hydrogen can be used to store the last 12 hours of solar energy. “We need green hydrogen to continue increasing the amount of renewable energy,” he says Mowill. Once the grid reaches a critical mass of renewable energy inputs from sources such as wind and solar, something needs to intervene to stabilize and smooth the peaks and troughs of demand and supply. “Batteries don’t solve it. It’s on an impractical scale,” he says, Mowill. “Hydrogen is a very good way to balance this.”
Also, unlike batteries, hydrogen can be efficiently transported. It can be compressed into liquid hydrogen, which requires some energy, or converted into ammonia, which is already being transported around the world, and “split” into hydrogen and nitrogen at its destination.
Countries like Japan and South Korea, which are home to energy-intensive industries (such as steel, automobile and ship manufacturing) but lack renewable Eager to import hydrogen from countries with excess. , Australia, etc.
Carlos Trench, Hydrogen Project Manager, Engie Australia & New Zealand, said: “Then transport the molecule, whether ammonia or other derivatives, and reconvert it into green power at destinations where direct development of renewable energy is not feasible.”
Japan has already announced its intention to become a world leader in the hydrogen economy as part of its carbon neutral strategy. South Korea hopes that hydrogen will provide about a third of its energy by 2050.
But Percy stresses that despite all the excitement, green hydrogen still plays a minor role in the global decarbonization game today. “It’s very small now,” he says. But it’s booming.
China’s state-owned energy company Sinopec has begun construction of the world’s largest green hydrogen facility. When completed, it will produce 30,000 tons of green hydrogen annually. (Today, less than 1 million tons of low-carbon hydrogen are produced annually, much of it using fossil fuels, and the carbon produced is captured.)
Spain has also made significant progress in production, announcing plans to become a major hydrogen producer in 2020. The company has set a goal of producing 4 gigawatts of green hydrogen annually by 2030, and has already more than quadrupled this, with more production facilities planned.
Cost is still an issue. About 60% of the cost of green hydrogen is the cost of the renewable energy used to produce it, Percy says. The cost of electrolyser technology is another major factor in hydrogen’s relatively high price, but Mowill says electrolyzers are becoming more efficient. There is also the logistics of storage, compression and transportation, further driving up the price of green hydrogen molecules.
But as hydrogen stars grow, those costs will inevitably drop, says Percy. “If you look at what happened with solar, both the solar system and the battery system have declined by about 80% in about 10 years,” he says. He predicts that the same will happen with hydrogen once a more solid technology base is found. “The tests that are taking place are very important for the industry to learn from,” he said. “Right now it’s a pilot scale, but in five years it could be ready for a larger scale.”
