Soaring electricity and gas prices have shone the national spotlight on energy, but even before the current crisis, big business and governments had begun to look to hydrogen as one of the answers to meet the demand for clean and reliable energy.
Key points:
- The South African government has committed $593 million over four years to create a hydrogen facility in Whyalla
- The facility will allow the state to produce and store hydrogen energy
- Experts say hydrogen could be a big part of Australia’s energy mix and help reduce our dependence on gas
Clean energy experts say hydrogen project near Whyalla on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia could help provide answers on how best to carry out the process of making and storing hydrogen energy.
Program director for energy and climate change at the Grattan Institute, Tony Wood, said one of the main benefits of the project would be to really test the technology.
“Nobody really does it all over the world yet,” he said.
So how will this work? And how could it be used to help our energy-hungry world? We’ll take a look.
How do we get hydrogen?
Basically, you get hydrogen by separating hydrogen from oxygen in water (H2O).
This is done by a process called electrolysis, which sends an electric current through the water and causes the chemical reaction.
Former Clean Energy Finance Corporation Managing Director Oliver Yates, who is now at Sentient Impact Group, explains:
“It just starts as a glass of water…zap the glass of water with wonderful renewable energy, effectively electrifying my glass of water, and it splits the oxygen and I end up with hydrogen,” a- he declared.
“So everybody cleans their teeth, they clean it with fuel.”
The process may not seem energy efficient, but the electrolyzers will be powered by excess solar energy.
Yes, South Australia sometimes generates too much sun, at the point where the panels are temporarily turned off.
Mr Yates said having an electrolyser to absorb that extra energy and produce hydrogen was exactly what was needed when there was too much solar power.
“At the moment the energy is actually wasted, it can actually use it,” he said.
Excess solar power is usually generated in the middle of the day, and Yates said that’s when electrolysers tend to operate.
He said they also have the ability to shut down quickly when needed.
However, Mr. Wood said, electrolysers were not that cheap.
“You have to generate renewable energy first, but then you have to add the cost of conversion,” he said.
What’s at the Whyalla Hydrogen Plant?
In addition to the 250 MWe electrolyzers, the South African government will build a 200 MW hydrogen-powered power plant.
The government has said the electricity will help supply power to factories, manufacturing companies and mining companies.
In its recent state budgetthe SA government reaffirmed its $593 million commitment to the project.
The managing director of the new Office of Hydrogen Power SA, Sam Crafter, said there was no time to waste and the facility should be operational by the end of 2025.
Mr Crafter said the purpose of the power station was to have more dispatchable electricity generation available in South Africa.
He said it was really important, especially during times like now, with current gas supply.
“We need to be able to have a position where we have our own dispatchable and operational generation here in South Australia,” he said.
The plant will also have the capacity to store hydrogen energy for later use.
That’s why experts say it’s a good use of excess solar power.
What about wind and solar?
According to experts, hydrogen is not the only solution to our energy needs, but will be part of the energy mix.
For example, Tony Wood asserts that solar and wind power are preferable for providing electricity to the home, as they do not require converting that same electricity into hydrogen.
“If there is an alternative, like just using electricity in the first place, then that will almost always be a preferable thing to do, because it will be cheaper,” he said.
But wind and solar have their drawbacks, namely that they are dependent on mother nature and in some cases are not powerful enough.
“In some manufacturing processes, like blast furnaces, etc., you can’t do that with electricity.
“You just aren’t getting enough power from electricity, at least now anyway.”
That’s why there’s a lot of talk about using hydrogen instead of coal to make steel, or what’s called green steel.
Associate professor of energy economics at the University of Adelaide, Liam Wagner, said this could also be an advantage for the hydrogen plant near Whyalla, given that there is a steelworks near.
“I believe the hydrogen plant being set up in South Australia will contribute to this industrial transformation and lead to the creation of more jobs and a greater share of South Australian exports to the world,” he said.
But it’s not just steel.
Hydrogen can also be combined with nitrogen to create ammonia, which Dr Wagner says would be used in heavy transport logistics, shipping and potentially for aircraft.
Could it be exported?
One of the potential benefits of the hydrogen plant is to also enable the export of renewable energy around the world.
Mr Crafter said it was possible to use the current surplus of solar and wind energy, turn it into green hydrogen or later green ammonia and export it to Japan, Korea or the United States. Europe.
However, Mr Wood said, it could also be difficult to store and transport.
“The fact is that if we are going to gradually replace the use of fossil fuels – coal, gas and oil – in all the applications where we use them today, hydrogen could very well find itself in a situation where it is almost the only solution in some cases.”
He said that meant the focus on hydrogen had to be where it technically and economically made the most sense.
Job , updated
#hydrogen #solution #gas #crisis