As the UK is expected to increase the share of its energy generation from renewable supplies by a factor of five over the next decade, the country needs new ways of coping with the fluctuating and unpredictable nature of generation from these sources. In winning a £164,000 grant from TSB’s Smart Power Distribution and Demand competition, ITM Power intend to investigate the feasibility of using hydrogen gas, generated from electrolysis fed from excess renewables, into the UK gas networks.
The firm will work in partnership with the Scottish Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association and Kiwa Gastec at CRE (Gastec) on the study, and will seek to make a generation model and simulate the potential hydrogen production at a single wind farm.
Graham Cooley, CEO at ITM Power, commented: “ITM Power’s technology is ready at the 1MW level and we are very excited about energy storage using the injection of hydrogen directly into the gas grid. Managing renewables is about harvesting and utilising the maximum amount of energy possible. Generating green hydrogen and injecting it directly into the gas main grid is an excellent way of solving the renewable intermittency quandary.”
Mark Crowther, Director and General Manager at Kiwa Gastec at CRE, commented: “The use of the mains gas grid for clean energy storage is a logical step and Gastec are looking forward to providing our expertise in this area to the feasibility project. There will be a considerable amount of compliance work necessary to make this happen and this consortium has the skills to achieve the required outcome.”
The project will commence in July 2012 and take 12 months to complete.
