Blue Flame Bounty: A practical energy storage solution

Part 4: Power-to-Gas (P2G)

Natural gas: Clean, affordable, reliable and safe

As a fuel, natural gas is overflowing with possibility . . . and versatility.

It’s an abundant, low-cost, clean-burning source of energy. It’s reliable and efficient, with a well-established delivery infrastructure.

And it’s an essential player in a lower-carbon future—replacing coal for electricity generation, providing low-emissions home heating, promoting growth in renewables by addressing intermittency issues.

In this fourth chapter of our Blue Flame Bounty series, we look at the Power-to-Gas (P2G) process—an energy storage solution that can take advantage of pre-existing natural gas grids.

An important energy storage solution

As we hear time and again, wind and solar power are imperfect energy supply solutions, because the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine.

The Power-to-Gas process represents a practical solution for storing renewable energy from an intermittent source, like a wind turbine or a solar panel.

P2G takes surplus electricity from renewable energy, and converts it into renewable hydrogen through electrolysis. Hydrogen can also be combined with CO2—a process known as “methanation”—to create synthetic methane, or renewable natural gas. The product is then injected into a gas distribution network.

Existing gas pipelines can store massive amounts of carbon-neutral methane indefinitely. The stored energy can be discharged where and when it’s needed most—resulting in higher overall integrated system efficiency.

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Less carbon, more hydrogen

The Power-to-Gas process could play an important role in the transformation of the energy landscape. It enables the share of renewables in the energy mix to increase, and it could also conceivably help achieve a carbon-neutral gas supply in regions like Europe by 2050.

What can P2G provide?

It can capture excess power from intermittent sources.

It can provide energy storage both on a short-term and a seasonal basis; energy that’s captured in times of low economic value can be used as a heating fuel in winter, for example.

It can offer long-distance energy transportation when the power transmission grid is inadequate.

And it can help in the production of renewable hydrogen for the chemical industry or transportation sector.

Testing P2G’s practicality

There are more than 20 Power-to-Gas demonstration projects in Europe, including the Thuga Power-to-Gas Plant in Germany.

In the United States, the Southern California Gas Company has teamed up with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to put this technology to the test.

And in Canada, Hydrogenics has launched a 2.5-megawatt (MW) grid storage project, among others, and is looking down the road for commercial-scale projects.

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