ELECTRONICS AND ENERGY ACCUMULATION LABORATORY Hydrogen and Renewable Energies

Background  Is the most plentiful element in the universe  Is colourless, odourless, insipid, non-toxic and highly inflammable  Has the highest energy/weight ratio energetic vector  Is not a source of energy but a form of storage. It is an energetic vector  Its combustion only produces H 2 O. It is a non-pollutant fuel  Does not exist in free form. It needs to be produced:  Fossil fuels  Biomass  Electrolysis  Photoelectrochemistry  ….. renewable energies  If it is produced from renewable energies the cycle has zero- emissions Hydrogen:

Sources and Uses of Hydrogen

… Fuel Cell Technology Fuels and applications

Background Hydrogen can be stored in: Gas state. The low density of H 2 means that less energy per unit of volume is stored  Advantage  LOW COST AND GREAT DEVELOPMENT AND RELIABILITY  Disadvantage  LARGE VOLUMES AND HIGH PRESSURES Liquid state. Its low boiling point (20K) means cryogenic recipients are required  Advantage  HIGH DENSITY AND LESS WEIGHT  Disadvantage  SAFETY PROBLEMS, HIGH CONSUMPTION OF ENERGY AND HIGH COST Solid state (HYDRIDES). H 2 reacts with different metals or intermetallic compounds forming HYDRIDES  Advantage  MORE STORAGE PER UNIT OF VOLUME, REVERSIBLE REACTION, LOW PRESSURE AND SAFETY  Disadvantage  RELATIVELY HIGH WEIGHT

Background The applications can be: Stationary.  Housing Transport.  Cars  Submarines  Boats  Aeroplanes... Portable items.  PCs  Mobile phones, etc. Isolated system. Energy accumulation: Integration of the RES in the network. Source: CENER Source: MTI Company

Studies have been carried out that analyse the feasibility of the integration of renewable energies with hydrogen Several demonstration projects have been set up that enable the results of the preliminary studies to be put into practice Numerous patents have been applied for and accepted The European Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Platform has been created Activities in Europe

H 2 filling station for CUTE and Citycell buses ( Madrid, April 28 th, 2003 )

H2 filling station for CUTE buses (Barcelona, April 9th, 2003)

Hydrogen development strategie. Road Map.

Cener’s position 1.Increase the penetration of renewable energies into the electricity network. 2.Make the renewable energies similar to conventional sources, which will enable a better management of them by the operator of the electrical system. 3.Reduce the dependence on imported fossil fuels and increase the energy and environmental sustainability of the region. 4.Provide innovation for energy storage systems. energy accumulation Cener’s activity is focused on the application of hydrogen as an energy accumulation system, with the objective of increasing and improving the penetration of renewable energies in the electrical system. It considers electrolysis from renewable energies (in particular from wind energy) as a production system. Hydrogen produced in this way is what is known as green hydrogen. The use of hydrogen can:

CENER – Government of Navarre, (SPAIN)  Objective: To develop an integrated technological solution in which the hydrogen vector will act as a means for accumulating energy from wind energy in such a way that its re-conversion into electrical energy as required facilitates its integration into the electrical system.  The purpose behind this work consists of advancing and developing an industrial-scale technical solution, which is economically interesting, which could be commercialised within 5 to 10 years. Studies

Cener’s position Cener has two laboratories for research and experimentation in this field:  Electrochemical Laboratory.  Laboratory for Integrating Hydrogen and Renewable Energies.

Hydrogen Storage Efficiency of Hydrogen production 75 % Efficiency of compression 96 % Efficiency of recover energy systems  Turbines30-32 %  Combustion 44 %  Fuel Cells 55 %  Hybrid Systems % High temperature+ gas turbine Suppliers of Hybrids systems  Siemens, Westinghouse, Fuel Cells Energy+MTU  Current power limit200 KW

Hydrogen costs Wind Farm scale 50 MW Total Investment approx.2,5- 3,0 M€/ MW  Fuel cells €/KW  Hybrid systems €/kw Operational life time years TIR of investmentpositive>15 years

Peripheral maritime regions In most cases, peripheral maritime regions have some particularities derived from their situation and/or commercial activities: Hydrogen, as a means of energy storage, can minimise or solve these problems in the next future 1.Weak networks or even disconnection of networks (islands and remote communities) 2.High renewable resources in the sea (offshore wind farms) that require more costly transport networks 3.High seasonal energy consumption (Mediterranean coast) 4.Management of demand in ports

Utsira Project (IEA) Norwegian and German companies (Enercon), Norwegian government Objectives:  To demonstrate an autonomous energy system  To integrate developed, novelty hydrogen technologies with renewable energies Demonstration projects

Hydrogen Generation from Stand-Alone Wind- Powered Electrolysis Systems (IEA, Task 11) Energy Research Unit, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK), Casaccia Research Centre (Italy), Institute for Technical Thermodynamics (Germany), Department of Engineering, University of Leicester (UK) Objectives:  To improve the control of the aerogenerator to improve the quality of the energy  To examine the tolerance of an electrolyser in a fluctuating supply  To design and construct a small-scale isolated system of hydrogen (< 10 kW)  To assess the economic costs Demonstration projects

Cluster Pilot Project for the Integration of RES into European Energy Sectors using Hydrogen (RES2H2) (IEA) Spain, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, Greece and Cyprus Objectives:  Clean production of hydrogen using wind energy  To solve the problem of storing excess energy  To obtain water from the renewable-H2 system Demonstration projects

PROIDRI (CNR ITAE-UNICT DIEES, Italy).  Objective: Development of integrated systems of renewables with hydrogen  Development of a prototype of the system  To improve the characteristics of the electrolysers  Study of the losses associated with converters and adaptors HIDROTEC (Corporación Tecnalia).  Objective: Introduction of a demonstration plant with multiple applications to assess the various options of sustainable energy solutions based on hydrogen  Scenes selected for simulation:  Hydrogen filling station for transport  Hydrogen storage to increase the availability of high power wind farms  Autonomous isolated systems Other demonstration projects

Hydrogen and Renewables Integration Project (HaRI) CREST (Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology) at Loughborough University Objectives:  To investigate energy storage methods generated by renewable sources Hydrogen Demo Project in UK: PURE-Promoting Unst Renewable Energy Shetland Council Objectives:  To demonstrate the feasibility of systems based on renewables and hydrogen  Sustainable use of energy resources that are found in the isolated communities Demonstration projects

AEROPILA, BESEL  Objective: Installation of an isolated system based on renewable energies and hydrogen for stationary and transport applications  Pilot plant (operating since 2004). Other demonstration projects

RenewIslands  Objective: To increase the penetration into the market of new energy systems combining fuel cell technology, renewable energies and hydrogen in islands and remote regions in Europe and third-world countries. Tesis NTNU, Norway (C.J. Greiner)  Objective: Analysis of the production of hydrogen from wind energy from an economic and environmental point of view. Renewable-H2  Objective: To assess the European activities in H2 and renewables and the bodies involved, to set up interaction with national programmes and H2 networks, to identify opportunities for integrating renewables in the “hydrogen economy” and to assess the possibility of setting up an Excellence Centre. Studies

Altman M., Richert, F., Hydrogen production at offshore wind farms. Offshore Wind Energy Special Topic Conference, Belgium, Dec  Making the most of maritime wind resources (North Sea). Offshore platforms for producing hydrogen through the electrolysis of desalinated water.  Eliminate the electrical connections to land.  H2 has diverse applications (H2 common industry, fuel, energy vector). Studies

Conclusions  Hydrogen is beginning to look like one of the large-scale energy accumulation systems. It will enable us to increase the penetration of renewable energies into the energy market, the quality of the energy and the stabilisation of the network.  If the production of hydrogen is though electrolysis based on renewables, the cycle has zero emissions.  It can serve as a support in the case of regions with a high energy dependence or with weak networks.  In Europe, demonstration projects are being developed with the aim of showing the feasibility of the H 2 -RES system. Conclusions

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