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    1. Energy Storage

    GKN Hydrogen, SoCalGas work with National Renewable Lab to deploy Green H2 Storage

    July 1, 2022
    Two HY2MEGA subsystems will be connected to an electrolyzer and a fuel cell to produce green hydrogen from renewable sources, store it under low pressure and convert it to renewable electricity
    Image credit GKN Hydrogen
    Hymega 62bef680a94d8

    Hydrogen storage solutions firm GKN Hydrogen and utility Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) are working with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory on the deployment of a green hydrogen storage solution at NREL's  Flatirons Campus in Boulder, Colorado.

    Two HY2MEGA storage vessels will be connected to an electrolyzer and fuel cell at the ARIES facility on the Flatirons Campus. The electrolyzer will produce green hydrogen from renewable sources and this energy will be stored in the HY2MEGA system in solid state under low pressure.

    GKN Hydrogen claims that this is the safest way to store hydrogen. The fuel cell will convert the green hydrogen to renewable electricity.

    The two HY2MEGA subsystems will add 500 kgs of storage to the site. This three-year project has received a $1.7 million funding from the DOE and $400,000 of Research, Development, and Demonstration funding from SoCalGas.

    “SoCalGas will leverage the large-scale hydrogen storage capabilities of GKN Hydrogen’s HY2MEGA from this project to help accelerate the commercialization and deployment of green hydrogen projects,” said Neil Navin, Vice President of clean energy innovations at SoCalGas. “Ultimately, green hydrogen generation and storage will help decarbonize the energy system while assuring stability of the electrical grid to enable even higher penetrations of renewable sources of electricity."

     Earlier this year, SoCalGas announced a proposal to develop the Angeles Link, what it called the nation’s potentially largest green hydrogen infrastructure system. The utility wants to build a 10-20 GW electrolyzer powered by up to 35 GW in wind and solar energy.

    In addition, some 2 GW of energy storage capacity would store and then transport the green hydrogen to H2 offtakers in the Los Angeles Basin, according to the plan.

    Hydrogen does not emit carbon dioxide when combusted. If utilized in the transportation sector, SoCalGas said, it could displace up to three million gallons of diesel fuel per day by replacing those heavy duty trucks with H2 Fuel Cell trucks.

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.