Hydrogen pipelines are the solution to the intermittency problem of solar and wind power

(Note: To learn more about hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and their potential to solve the oil crisis, please read the series of articles titled “Twelve Hydrogen Facts” which is part of the Hydrogen Manhattan Project.)

Solar and wind power have a tremendous amount of potential to provide clean, renewable electricity in the U.S. and around the world.  Wind power can already compete with other sources of electricity.  And the cost of solar power is going down very quickly, so it will be competitive in the very near future.

The problem with solar and wind power is that they are intermittent sources of electricity.  The sun is not always shining and the wind is not always blowing.  However, consumers demand different amounts of electricity during each day and throughout the year.

The way this issue is handled today is by having multiple sources of electricity.  For example, a home or business might get their electricity from solar or wind power at one point during the day and coal or natural gas at another time.

But the obvious problem is that large amounts of coal and natural gas are still being used.

This begs the question: Is there a viable way to store the energy from excess solar or wind power so it can be used during the times when solar or wind facilities are not producing enough electricity to meet demand?

The answer is yes.  The intermittency problem of solar and wind power can be solved by producing hydrogen and storing it in large facilities filled with hydrogen pipelines.

Here are some details about how this would be done.

Let’s assume that there is a city in Texas with a population of 30,000 that wants to have all of their electricity throughout the entire year to come from a local wind farm.

The local wind farm would have to be large enough to have the capacity to both provide electricity to the city and produce the hydrogen that will be needed when the wind is not blowing much and/or the demand for electricity is really high.

Electrolyzers would be used to produce the hydrogen from the excess electricity generated by the wind turbines.  The hydrogen would then be stored in large facilities (where the electrolyzers would be) that would contain rows and rows of large hydrogen pipelines.

To get an idea of approximately how big the facilities could be, Dr. James Blencoe, Chief Scientist of Hydrogen Discoveries, has said that they could be along the lines of a Wal-Mart distribution facility or perhaps even bigger.  Here is a picture of one that is the size of approximately 16 football fields.

The facility would also have fuel cells.  During the times when the “stored electricity” is needed, the hydrogen would simply be run through the fuel cells to produce electricity.

The cost of the electricity from the hydrogen will obviously cost more than electricity from wind power that goes straight to the grid.  But hydrogen produced from wind power will likely begin to be less expensive than natural gas (which is commonly used during times of peak electricity demand) at some point in the next couple of years.

The possibilities are very exciting.  Solar, wind, and hydrogen along with energy efficiency can translate into a world where the electricity that powers our homes and businesses does not come from fossil fuels.