January 1, 2007—The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Xcel Energy have just dedicated a new system that uses electricity from wind turbines to produce and store pure hydrogen, offering what NREL says may become an important new template for future energy production.
The system, located at NREL’s National Wind Technology Center, links two wind turbines to devices called electrolyzers, which pass the electricity through water to split the liquid into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can be stored and used later to generate electricity from either an internal combustion engine turning a generator or from a fuel cell.
Currently, there are limitations to both wind power and hydrogen, explains Xcel Energy. Wind farms only generate electricity when the wind is blowing, which is about one-third of the time in the US. This creates the need for backup generation, which is usually fossil-fueled. The pure form of hydrogen must be either electrolyzed from water, or stripped out of natural gas, which Xcel Energy says are energy-intensive processes that result in greenhouse gas emissions.
For more information visit Xcel Energy or the DOE Hydrogen Program Web site.
