Utility and U.S. government launch wind-to-hydrogen facility

GOLDEN, Colorado, US, January 10, 2007 (Refocus Weekly) Two wind turbines are producing hydrogen at a facility constructed by Xcel Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, part of the U.S. Department of Energy.

The facility is located at NREL's National Wind Technology Center, between Golden and Boulder, Colorado, and the pure hydrogen produced by the turbines will be stored for use later to generate electricity from an internal combustion engine or from a fuel cell. A public update will be issued in mid-year, and results will be shared with the Hydrogen Utility Group, which comprises Xcel Energy and nine other utilities involved in the role of hydrogen in the electric utility industry.

“Today we begin using our cleanest source of electricity – wind power – to create the perfect fuel: hydrogen,” says Richard Kelly of Xcel Energy. “Converting wind energy to hydrogen means that it doesn't matter when the wind blows since its energy can be stored on-site in the form of hydrogen.”

Xcel Energy and NREL are each paying part of the US$2 million budget for the two-year project. The facility has a building for the electrolyzers and a device to compress the hydrogen for storage, with four large tanks to store the hydrogen, a generator to burn the hydrogen and a control room with computers to monitor all the steps of the process.

“The project allows our researchers to compare different types of electrolyzers and work on increasing the efficiency of a wind to hydrogen system,” says NREL director Dan Arvizu. “It has the potential to point the way to a completely emissions-free system of making, storing and using energy.”

Windfarms can generate electricity only when the wind is blowing, which creates a need for backup capacity. Hydrogen must be electrolyzed from water or stripped from natural gas, which emits greenhouse gases.

"By marrying wind turbines to hydrogen production, we create a synergy that systematically reduces the drawbacks of each," says Kelly. “Intermittent wind power is converted to a stored fuel that can be used anytime while, at the same time, offering a totally climate-friendly way to retrieve hydrogen, to power our homes and possibly cars in the future.”

Xcel Energy sells electricity to 3.3 million customers and natural gas to 1.8 million customers in eight western states. NREL is the DOE primary laboratory for the research and development of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.


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