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WASHINGTON, DC, US, May 17, 2006 (Refocus
Weekly)
The cost of producing hydrogen from wind turbines
will drop in half, according to research commissioned by the U.S.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Hydrogen produced from wind has the potential to meet the goals
of the Department of Energy’s Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure
Technologies (HFC&IT) program, explain J. Levene, B. Kroposki and G.
Sverdrup in their paper, ‘Wind Energy & Production of Hydrogen &
Electricity - Opportunities for Renewable Hydrogen’ presented at the
POWER-GEN renewable energy conference in Las Vegas. The HFC&IT goal
for delivered hydrogen at the filling station by 2015 is US$2 to $3
per kg, with $1/kg for delivery.
If aggregate wind power is available at the filling station for
3.8¢/kWh, it is possible for the cost of production, compression and
storage to drop below that target, it concludes. “Hydrogen
production at the wind site makes fiscal sense if cost reductions
offset delivery cost and cost reductions need to be between $0.27
and $0.70/kg to meet the DOE HFC&IT cost targets.”
“Hydrogen can be produced from a variety of domestic renewable
sources of energy,” and the research assessed options for wind /
hydrogen / power systems at both central and distributed facilities
in order to gain insight into opportunities for renewable hydrogen,
as well as research priorities for the hydrogen production pathway.
For central production, the study indicates that hydrogen can be
produced at a wind site for $5.55/kg in the near term to $2.27/kg in
the long term. In a distributed scenario, a windfarm provides a
signal to a remote electrolyzer to allow the electrolyzer to run
only when wind is blowing and the study estimates that hydrogen can
be produced for $4.03/kg in the near term to $2.33/kg in the long
term.
“Both analyses reveal that in order to optimize the production of
hydrogen from wind, the electricity and hydrogen production needs to
be examined as an integrated system,” and researchers at NREL are
trying to “build renewable hydrogen from wind into a viable
production method for transportation fuel in the future.”
Early last year, Xcel Energy asked NREL to study if hydrogen could
be economically produced from wind turbines for transportation fuel
use, and both studies used low-temperature electrolysis units to
convert wind energy to hydrogen. Electrolysis requires 39 kWh of
electricity to produce 1 kg of hydrogen, which has the same energy
content as one gallon of gasoline.
The study used NREL’s HOMER model, which added the ability to model
hydrogen in 2004, and conducted analyses on an hourly basis. It
assumed that peak electricity consumption is from 4 pm to 7 pm on
weekdays, so no hydrogen could be produced during those three hours,
but the electrolyzer could run 24 hours a day on weekends.
Rather than use turbine costs, it considered only the cost of
wind-generated electricity, which Xcel Energy purchases at
$0.038/kWh. Costs for the electrolyzer are assumed to be $740/kW,
$400/kW and $300/kW in near, mid and long term.
Electricity produced during peak hours is sold at 6.6¢ /kWh, which
is Xcel Energy’s peak rate, and the research found the cost to
produce hydrogen could drop 12% to 16% when average annual wind
speeds are high, showing that “higher average annual wind speeds can
lead to lower hydrogen prices.” In the near and mid term, hydrogen
can be produced at the point of use for less then the cost of
producing hydrogen at a windfarm, because capacity factors of
electrolyzers are higher.
“These results appear to show that producing hydrogen from aggregate
wind at the point of use appears to be the most economic option,” it
concludes. “However, if research of the system 1 can lead to cost
reductions that offset the delivery costs, this study shows that
hydrogen production at the wind site can makes fiscal sense.”
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