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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 mission 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 offer native energy via a hydrogen gas 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 is just not 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. Trendy 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, however 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 gas 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 complete 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 larger than the California grid common and worse than a contemporary diesel generator.
One of many concerned corporations — 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, however it’s deeply unclear how.
This raises questions on why public funds have 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 larger carbon depth than the grid they’re supposed to switch. A part of the reply lies within the coverage desire for seen, tangible infrastructure that may be ribbon-cut and photographed, moderately than lower-cost, higher-performance options which can be much less photogenic. A giant half lies in California being an epicenter of hydrogen follywith 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 firms like Plug Energy, which has spent many years constructing relationships with policymakers regardless of by no means reaching profitability and persistently underperforming financially. Tasks like Calistoga present income and market presence for such corporations whereas providing zero profit by way of decarbonization.
It’s actually not as if Calistoga, inhabitants 5,022, might afford the $46.3 million that California’s Public Utility Fee accredited PG&E to throw away on this capital and operationally costly strategy to preserving the lights on. Their funds is just about $14 million a yr. It’s additionally not as if a small rural city didn’t have room to place an enormous 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’s also not stunning that firms from different contested corners of the power sector are actually shifting into hydrogen. Vitality Vault started with a gravity storage idea that concerned stacking and decreasing huge concrete blocks. From the beginning, its physics and economics in contrast poorly to pumped hydro or batteriesand real-world deployments have been restricted with just one in operation and no public info on worth or unbiased efficiency assessments.
The problem for a publicly traded firm with a expertise that has failed to fulfill market wants is learn how to create a brand new development narrative that may appeal to investor and authorities consideration. Hydrogenwith its regular move of public funding bulletins and its portrayal as a clear gas of the longer term, is an apparent candidate. Vitality Vault’s transfer towards integrating hydrogen storage into its portfolio appears virtually inevitable, no matter whether or not the expertise will work higher than its authentic idea. Definitely it moved into lithium battery power storage methods rapidly after its SPAC, leveraging it to turn into a considerably overcapitalized battery storage developer.
The physics of hydrogen storage for grid functions will not be forgiving. Spherical-trip effectivity is much decrease than batteries or pumped hydro. Compression or liquefaction provides important power prices, and the infrastructure is dear to construct and keep.
The frequent thread between the Calistoga microgrid and Vitality Vault’s hydrogen ambitions is just not technical advantage however the alignment of company survival wants with public funding priorities. Corporations with underperforming enterprise fashions have robust incentives to place themselves as gamers in sectors the place coverage is creating demand no matter economics. For policymakers, the mix of job creation claims, native infrastructure spending, and a inexperienced narrative will be persuasive. With out cautious scrutiny of precise efficiency, the result’s tasks 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 will be sized to the wants of communities like Calistoga. Thermal storage or biofuel succesful turbines utilizing sustainably sourced fuels might 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 larger emissions than simply working diesel turbines.
The lesson from Calistoga is that good intentions and public funding don’t robotically produce good outcomes. With out aligning expertise selections with real-world efficiency and lifecycle emissions, communities threat locking themselves into high-cost, high-carbon pathways below the banner of unpolluted power. The attraction of hydrogen as a story will hold drawing in firms that want a brand new story to inform buyers, however attraction is just not the identical as suitability.
Policymakers and regulators must look past the optics and assess whether or not the tasks they fund are genuinely shifting 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 lifeless finish.
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