With the fight to make the most of what we have and to stop using what we can’t afford to, the talk of moving to a renewables system is louder than it has ever been. All across the world, people are moving ever-closer to the idea of using natural energies and renewable sources of energy to try and power our future. We know now the damage that our short-termism has done over the last few decades. Now, it’s time to change that up and make things a bit more engaging for those who will remain long after us.
The sight, then, of a commercial-scale green hydrogen plant being powered only using renewables is a hope-building sight. This has been powered using surplus wind energy, with the development set to take further flight this year. It’s been managed by a trio of big Belgian companies, with DEME, PMV, and the Port of Ostend all working together to make this work.
They intend to show off a 50MW demonstration of how the project is going to work at the port itself. It’s set to become the largest electrolyser plant in the world, with the aim to be fully commercially ready by 2025. Lofty ambitions, but seemingly the goals are realistic and achievable today.
With so much renewable energy being wasted and not put back into the grid worldwide, it’s vital that we use that energy for something else. The transferral of that energy to a hydrogen company, then, makes perfect sense. This process, known as electrolysis, is a vital part of making sure that we can use electricity to our advantage. The aim here then is to power these electrolyser units by working with only renewable sources of energy.
This is extremely exciting and could see as much as 4GW of wind energy installed in the coming years. This will ensure that green hydrogen can become cheaper to produce, and more capable of being produced for a cost that could make it the affordable alternative that it should become. Make no mistake, then, that this could be a game-changer for the whole renewables industry.
“However, the wind turbines’ production peaks rarely coincide with consumer demand peaks, meaning that there is an opportunity to compensate for the discontinuity between production and consumption,
“With our energy transition in mind, we need to be able to temporarily store our green energy surplus using hydrogen as an energy carrier or to use hydrogen as an alternative raw material for converting the industry away from fossil fuels.”
In an industry that struggles to grow due to short-term interests, this could be the kick and the motivation that is needed to make full commitment to green energy a reality moving forward.
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