Producing Hydrogen Via Electrolysis From Curtailed Renewable Electricity

[Stones]

Went to a very interesting presentation about the following project which has full funding and is in the process of being implemented:

http://www.localener...ey-surf-n-turf/

which seeks to utilise curtailed renewable energy generated on Orkney to produce hydrogen for a variety of different uses. It is hoped this project will show what can be done, and has a lot of possibilities for communities such as Orkney, the Western Isle and others where grid constraints mean a lot of renewable energy simply has to be switched off and is therefore wasted.

Part of the scheme is to be able to train up a cadre of local mariners in the use of hydrogen as a fuel, which in the future should allow the general use of hydrogen / fuel cell powered ships (very much a chicken and egg situation at the moment - you can't operate a hydrogen powered ship until you have trained personnel and you can't train them with out a something to train them on.

Other schemes in the pipeline, either at feasibility or seeking funding stage are using hydrogen to provide heat energy for public buildings and a fleet of hydrogen vehicles, and producing synthetic diesel and agri products (fertilizer) for use in the agricultural sector.

One of the suggestions that interested me was the use of hydrogen as a replacement for natural gas to heat homes (after all, prior to north sea gas, much of the gas in this country was town gas, which comprised 40% hydrogen). 

[volcane]

http://www.newstalk.com/Fuelfree-cars-on-the-way-as-TCD-scientists-make-breakthrough

Hydrogen produced much more cheaply using manganese oxide.

Perhaps this could be a way of 'storing' PV hydrogen boiler for hotwater and any surplus for car use.

Anyway of preparing for this?