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Background
An inherent problem with wind and other renewable
energy sources, is their inability to be switched
on and off in response to consumer demand. Consequently,
current wisdom speaks of market penetration
that will never exceed some 20% of the total
power on the networks, since only the networks
themselves tend to act as the energy storage
system.
However, wind power coupled with electrolysis
of water, to produce hydrogen and oxygen are
the solution to improving the "quality"
of wind generated power, and the implementation
of this technology will theoretically permit
100% penetration of renewables into the power
generation market. (Incidentally, those who
favour nuclear energy see hydrogen as the future
energy vector that will replace hydrocarbons
in the coming generation).
Fuel
Cells
When used with a fuel cell, hydrogen and oxygen
will produce perfectly clean steam and electricity
with NO additional pollutants. Generally, the
steam would be recycled back to the electrolysis
phase after first passing through a heat exchanger
and/or condensing turbines to recapture all
the thermal energy. Nearly 5 MWh of electricity
are required to make 1000 cubic meter of hydrogen
gas (and about 500 cubic meter of oxygen). When
passed through a fuel cell, this hydrogen will
yield 1 MWh as electricity and 1 MWh as heat,
giving an overall storage efficiency of 40%.
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