Energy

If Green Hydrogen Can Fuel Los Angeles, It Will Really Be The City Of Dreams


Los Angeles may truly be the city of dreams. Its goal is to get all of its electricity from renewable energy. And its inching closer, having created a timeline to help convert an 1,800-megawatt coal plant in Utah to one that will ultimately run on green hydrogen that releases no emissions. 

It’s doable. The technology works. But it must now get scaled up. And L.A. is in a perfect position to lead this project — a city that aims to have net-zero CO2 releases by 2045. To that end, it plans on buying much of the output from the Intermountain Power Project, which is now a coal plant but which is converting to a combined cycle facility. That same plant will then create a pure-form of green hydrogen. It will also have access to the existing transmission infrastructure while having the ability to store excess hydrogen onsite in a salt cavern.

“I am optimistic because the leadership wants this to happen,” says Janice Lin, who founded the Green Hydrogen Coalition that is involved in the project, in an interview with this writer. “They have all the resources in one place to realize the hydrogen plant’s success. There is ample transmission. The West has amble renewables. And it is sitting atop the largest salt dome in the West, which is the lowest-cost way of storing hydrogen.” 

Hydrogen is now used in many industrial processes. More than 99% of the world’s hydrogen production to date has been from fossil fuels: natural gas, oil and coal. That’s called grey hydrogen. The objective is to get to green hydrogen, whereby solar panels or wind could produce electricity that is put through an electrolyzer to create pure hydrogen gas. That hydrogen gas can be stored in a tank, or a salt cavern in this case, before it is piped into a fuel cell that uses the hydrogen to create clean electricity with no emissions. 

Specifically, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power plans to have the Intermountain Power Project generate 30% hydrogen-powered electricity by 2025 and 100% by 2045. It will start out as an 840-megawatt natural gas plant that will also be capable of running hydrogen through its turbines. How? An electrolyzer will split apart the hydrogen and oxygen from the water where it is found. And the fuel to do that? Wind and solar, which makes the hydrogen green. What makes this possible? Renewable prices have fallen far and fast while vast improvements have been made in electrolyzer technologies. 

“Green hydrogen, in the past, has always run up against economic problems,” says Alex Klaessig, director for renewable and hydrogen forums, for IHS Markit, in an interview with this reporter. “Because of the greater focus on decarbonization and climate change, the cost to produce hydrogen by electrolysis has dropped. It is a lot more promising. The indicators show that this project will be viable. But it remains to be seen whether people will accept the higher prices this will bring.”

Battery Up

He goes on to say that a “wrecking ball” will be taken to the existing coal boiler, emphasizing that it is practical to introduce hydrogen into the new combined-cycle natural gas units; it’s already blended using 15% hydrogen with natural gas — a number that can reasonably double by 2025. Technically, hydrogen is another gas that is loaded into the turbine. 

Challenges, though, remain. For starters the hydrogen has about a third of the Btus as natural gas, meaning it does not have as much oomph and that — in the beginning — more natural gas will be required. That means more emissions. Critics, in fact, say that the process of using solar power to separate the hydrogen before taking that gas to produce electricity results in 70% energy losses. 

At the same time, hydrogen molecules are smaller and can escape. It is thus a harder commodity to store.

The good news is that the Intermountain Power Project attacks both issues: efficiency losses and storage. The sheer size of the power plant means that it will gain efficiencies when it comes to producing hydrogen. And once the greening of hydrogen is perfected, the energy losses will be the sunshine that is abundant and free. Given the current rate of technological advancement, some experts say that green hydrogen won’t achieve grid parity for 20 years. Others, though, think it will happen sooner. 

And then there’s the issue of storage. The Intermountain Power Project is sitting on a gold mine: a massive salt dome is allowing the green hydrogen to be stored. “It’s a ‘ginormous’ battery,’ says Janice Lin with the Green Hydrogen Coalition. “This salt dome formation can store the equivalent 100,000 megawatt-hours — enough storage capacity for the western U.S.” She says it could become the nation’s first strategic renewable energy reserve. 

Wade Shafer, part of IHS Markit’s North American Power Team, agrees that the Intermountain Power Project is poised for success. He points out, though, that California has a “carbon neutral” goal by 2045. That leaves room for the Intermountain Power Project to still use natural gas, assuming those emissions would be subsequently offset from other sources.  

“Replacing natural gas with hydrogen allows us to use existing technology,” adds Judith Judson, vice president of distributed energy systems at Ameresco, in an interview. “Instead of burning fossil natural gas, you are utilizing hydrogen, which is a cleaner fuel source. Therefore, it is cost-effective and it has the potential to rapidly reduce CO2.” 

Green hydrogen is coming. To speed it up, the underlying technologies need to reach size and scale. Mega-companies like Royal Dutch Shell and Engie are involved in separate projects. And now, Los Angeles is using its leverage to remake power production and the Intermountain Power Project. All the pieces are lining up. If it goes according to plan, L.A. will have achieved its renewable energy goals while also creating a pathway for other cities to follow. 



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