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The just-commissioned Calistoga hydrogen microgrid is a telling instance of how public cash can find yourself funding power pathways that ship little of what they promise. At first look, the venture seems well-intentioned. PG&E has positioned it as a resilience measure for a California group that faces wildfire-driven grid shutoffs. The concept is to supply native energy by means of a hydrogen gasoline cell system throughout outages, avoiding diesel turbines and the related emissions. It’s a simple story to promote to regulators, politicians, and residents.
The issue is that the precise efficiency, by way of each emissions and effectivity, appears nothing just like the clear, forward-looking picture within the press releases.
The hydrogen for this microgrid will not be produced domestically from clear electrical energy. It comes from Plug Energy’s grid-connected electrolyzer in Georgia, greater than 2,800 miles away. The plant runs on the Georgia grid, which in 2023 had a median carbon depth of about 0.33 kg of CO2 per kWh. Electrolysis requires roughly 57.5 kWh to provide one kilogram of hydrogen. Liquefying that hydrogen so it may be shipped cross-country provides about 12 kWh per kilogram. Which means the entire electrical energy consumed on the supply is near 69.5 kWh for each kilogram of hydrogen produced and liquefied. Multiplying that by Georgia’s carbon depth yields roughly 23 kg of CO2 emissions per kilogram of hydrogen earlier than it even leaves the state.
Trucking liquid hydrogen throughout the nation provides a bit extra. Fashionable cryogenic trailers can carry simply over 4 tons of hydrogen. Over 2,800 miles, that equates to about 0.5 kg of CO2 for every kilogram of hydrogen delivered. That quantity barely strikes the needle in comparison with the manufacturing and liquefaction emissions, nevertheless it nonetheless pushes the entire to round 23.6 kg of CO2 per kilogram delivered in California.
After all, hydrogen boils off, and US cryogenic hydrogen vans don’t sometimes seize boiled off hydrogen, though the Calistoga facility apparently does seize and use it, so add one other kilogram or extra of CO2e to each kilogram of delivered hydrogen.
As soon as there, the hydrogen is transformed again to electrical energy in a stationary PEM gasoline cell. Even on the higher finish of effectivity for methods of this dimension, round 50%, every kilogram of hydrogen produces solely about 16.6 kWh of electrical energy. Dividing whole emissions by the power output means the electrical energy delivered in Calistoga has a carbon depth within the vary of 1,400 to 1,600 grams of CO2 per kWh. That’s a number of occasions increased than the California grid common and worse than a contemporary diesel generator.
One of many concerned companies — and extra on the 2 standard suspects later — declare the hydrogen meets the federal normal of 4 kilograms of carbon dioxide emitted per kilogram of hydrogen, nevertheless it’s deeply unclear how.
This raises questions on why public funds had been directed to such an answer within the first place. State and federal packages, in addition to utility ratepayer funds, are getting used to finance methods that ship increased carbon depth than the grid they’re supposed to interchange. A part of the reply lies within the coverage choice for seen, tangible infrastructure that may be ribbon-cut and photographed, relatively than lower-cost, higher-performance options which can be much less photogenic. A giant half lies in California being an epicenter of hydrogen folly, with quite a few lobbying workplaces in Sacramento persevering with to wield their affect to maintain the general public purse open. One other half lies within the entrenched presence of corporations like Plug Energy, which has spent many years constructing relationships with policymakers regardless of by no means reaching profitability and constantly underperforming financially. Initiatives like Calistoga present income and market presence for such companies whereas providing zero profit by way of decarbonization.
It’s definitely not as if Calistoga, inhabitants 5,022, may afford the $46.3 million that California’s Public Utility Fee authorized PG&E to throw away on this capital and operationally costly strategy to conserving the lights on. Their funds is just about $14 million a 12 months. It’s additionally not as if a small rural city didn’t have room to place a giant array of photo voltaic and batteries, however Vitality Vault claims that solely a smaller lot was accessible to lease from the town, in order that they couldn’t do something smart.
It is usually not stunning that corporations from different contested corners of the power sector are actually transferring into hydrogen. Vitality Vault started with a gravity storage idea that concerned stacking and reducing huge concrete blocks. From the beginning, its physics and economics in contrast poorly to pumped hydro or batteries, and real-world deployments have been restricted with just one in operation and no public data on value or impartial efficiency assessments.
The problem for a publicly traded firm with a expertise that has failed to satisfy market wants is the way to create a brand new progress narrative that may appeal to investor and authorities consideration. Hydrogen, with its regular circulation of public funding bulletins and its portrayal as a clear gasoline of the longer term, is an apparent candidate. Vitality Vault’s transfer towards integrating hydrogen storage into its portfolio appears nearly inevitable, no matter whether or not the expertise will work higher than its authentic idea. Actually it moved into lithium battery power storage methods shortly after its SPAC, leveraging it to develop into a considerably overcapitalized battery storage developer.
The physics of hydrogen storage for grid functions usually are not forgiving. Spherical-trip effectivity is much decrease than batteries or pumped hydro. Compression or liquefaction provides vital power prices, and the infrastructure is pricey to construct and preserve.
The widespread thread between the Calistoga microgrid and Vitality Vault’s hydrogen ambitions will not be technical benefit however the alignment of company survival wants with public funding priorities. Corporations with underperforming enterprise fashions have sturdy incentives to place themselves as gamers in sectors the place coverage is creating demand no matter economics. For policymakers, the mixture of job creation claims, native infrastructure spending, and a inexperienced narrative may be persuasive. With out cautious scrutiny of precise efficiency, the result’s initiatives that eat scarce funds and ship little by way of emissions reductions or resilience.
California’s wildfire-driven grid challenges are actual, however there are confirmed options that would meet them extra successfully. Photo voltaic arrays paired with batteries can function independently of the grid for days, and may be sized to the wants of communities like Calistoga. Thermal storage or biofuel succesful turbines utilizing sustainably sourced fuels may present resilience with far decrease lifecycle emissions. These options lack the novelty issue of hydrogen or the architectural spectacle of a gravity storage tower, however they work, and so they ship measurable outcomes.
And as famous, the present hydrogen resolution is increased emissions than simply operating diesel turbines.
The lesson from Calistoga is that good intentions and public funding don’t mechanically produce good outcomes. With out aligning expertise decisions with real-world efficiency and lifecycle emissions, communities threat locking themselves into high-cost, high-carbon pathways underneath the banner of fresh power. The attraction of hydrogen as a story will preserve drawing in corporations that want a brand new story to inform buyers, however attraction will not be the identical as suitability.
Policymakers and regulators must look past the optics and assess whether or not the initiatives they fund are genuinely transferring the power system towards decrease emissions and better resilience, or whether or not they’re merely sustaining the newest chapter of a long-running expertise useless finish.
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