Researchers poke holes in solar cells to improve efficiency

www.designnews.com
3 Jun 2013

Researchers have been working on a variety of ways to improve the efficiency of solar cells, including the use of a spray-coating technique and by working with electrons and photons. Now, government researchers have come up with yet another way--poking holes in silicon wafers so they don't reflect and waste valuable sunlight.

The method, called "dark solar", has been developed by the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and it enables the cells to reflect only 2% of the sunlight that reaches them. The solar cells they've produced through this technology can work at an 18.2% efficiency rate, which is competitive for the type of black silicon cells researchers are working with.

The development of the black solar cells is "quite simple", but is enhanced by the hole-etching technique, according to information about the work provided to Design News by NREL spokesman William Scanlon.

To develop the cells, researchers first put the silicon silver/gray-colored wafer in a liquid solution of silver nitrate and hydrofluoric acid. In that bath, the ionic silver changes to silver nanoparticles. The wafer is then placed in a second bath of hydrofluoric acid and hydrogen peroxide, where the silver nanoparticles act as a catalyst for the oxidation of silicon, according to researchers.

While this process of making black silicon is not new, it's the etching of holes in the second bath of hydrofluoric acid and hydrogen peroxide that NREL has developed to bolster cell efficiency. These holes maximize the cell's sunlight conversion by preventing reflection of sunlight off the cell. To ensure the cells achieve top efficiency through the process, researchers had to consider the depth and size of the cells--they had to be deep and small enough to suppress reflections, but not too deep to impact the conversion efficiency.

"As the wavelengths move deeper and deeper into the holes they change gradually from wavelengths of air to wavelengths of silicon", researchers said in the NREL document provided by Scanlon. "That gradualness is the key. The photons never perceive an abrupt change from gas (air) to solid (silicon), and thus don't bounce back toward the atmosphere". That lack of bounce-back is what allows the photos to be absorbed in the silicon holes and thus non-reflective.

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Scientists develop new way to store renewable energy

www.digitaljournal.com
2 Jun 2013

Scientists based in Canada have developed a new technique for converting electricity into chemical energy. This could lead to improvements to the way that homeowners and businesses capture and re-use solar power. Researchers based at the University of Calgary, Curtis Berlinguette and Simon Trudel, have developed an innovative way to make new affordable and efficient catalysts for capturing solar power.

The innovation, as detailed in the research brief, is a new type of electrolyzer device that uses catalysts to start a chemical reaction that converts electricity into chemical energy by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen fuels. These fuels can then be stored and re-converted to electricity for future use. Key to the new method is the catalyst, the Technology Review notes,which the researchers report is faster, more efficient, and most importantly, cheaper than anything else available.

The technological breakthrough offers a relatively cheaper method of storing and reusing electricity produced by wind turbines and solar panels. The technology is set to be commercialized through a new start-up company called FireWater Fuel Corp. FireWater Fuel Corp, expects to have a commercial product in the current large-scale electrolyser market in 2014, and a prototype electrolyzer--using their new catalysts--ready by 2015 for testing in a home.

Breakthrough in solar efficiency by UNSW team ahead of its time

www.smh.com.au
6 May 2013

Australian scientists have found a way of hugely increasing the efficiency of solar panels while substantially reducing their cost. The University of New South Wales researchers have come up with improvements in photovoltaic panel design that had not been expected for another decade. This has really got the industry very excited.

The breakthrough involves using hydrogen atoms to counter defects in silicon cells used in solar panels. As a consequence, poor quality silicon can be made to perform like high quality wafers. The process makes cheap silicon "actually better than the best-quality material people are using at the moment", the head of the university's photovoltaics centre of excellence, Professor Stuart Wenham, said.

Silicon wafers account for more than half the cost of making a solar cell. "By using lower-quality silicon, you can drastically reduce that cost", he said. "We've been able to figure out what the secret is that enables hydrogen to sometimes work the way people want it to, and sometimes doesn't". At present, the best commercial solar cells convert between 17% and 19% of the sun's energy into electricity. UNSW's technique, patented this year, should produce efficiencies of between 21% and 23%.

"This has really got the industry very excited, not only in China, but elsewhere as well", said Richard Corkish, head of the university's School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering. Alumni of the school hold senior positions at many of the leading PV producers globally.

Separately, the UNSW's Martin Green, dubbed the "father of photovoltaics" for his work to develop and commercialise silicon solar cell technologies, was last week elected into the UK's renowed Royal Society. Professor Green, whose work includes overseeing research teams and setting the current 25% conversion efficiency record for solar PV, joins 1,450 of the world's top scientists as a Royal Society Fellow.

Prices tumble
The price of solar panels has fallen by about 65% in two years, partly due to a huge rise in production in China. Australians have been taking advantage of lower prices, with the number of homes with solar panels exceeding 1 million.

The phenomenal growth has caused some casualties in the industry as companies have taken on massive debt to expand supply, then struggled with falling prices in saturated markets. Notable among them is the recent debt default by Suntech Power, once the world's largest solar panel maker, founded by former University of New South Wales researcher Shi Zhengrong.

Panel prices are predicted to fall much further. European producers predict they will be 60% cheaper by 2020. "Based on the technological advances we're making, we think that's certainly achievable", Dr Wenham said.

Eight commercial firms have signed up to be a partner in developing the technology to an industrial scale, including Suntech Power, which continues to operate from its base in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi and has a research unit in Sydney. "It's the kind of advance that other people are anticipating is a decade away,'' Suntech Power R&D Australia managing director Renate Egan said. "It is quite a breakthrough".

Funding
Suntech Power funded much of the early work, including in China. "Suntech Power has the right to use that (intellectual property) and UNSW has the right to licence the technology to third parties", Dr Egan said. Funding to help commercialise the technology will total about $15 million over three years, with the UNSW seeking support from the federal government's Australian Renewable Energy Agency for part of that sum.

The annual funding of $5 million-equivalent to what bidders last month paid for the half-brother of champion race mare Black Caviar-is "a lot of money for us", Dr Corkish said. Already worth about $100 billion a year, the solar industry is expected to swell to about $140 billion by 2018, according to estimates published in April by Transparency Market Research.

Installed PV capacity probably surpassed 100 GWs, worldwide, in the March quarter, according to the International Energy Agency. Some forecasts project capacity will more than triple by the end of the decade. Australia ranked ninth, with installed capacity of 2.4 GW, at the end of 2012.

Apple wins big with renewable energy

www.hydrogenfuelnews.com
30 Mar 2013

Apple emerging as a major player in the renewable energy sector
Apple has emerged as a strong advocate for renewable energy, especially that of the solar variety. The famed technology company has taken an acute interest in solar power as a potential way to mitigate emissions and become more environmentally friendly. Last year, Apple's headquarters received an expansive rooftop solar power system, and the company has been making use of stationary hydrogen fuel-cells to power data centers in North Carolina. The company's enthusiasm concerning renewable energy seems to be paying off.

75% of Apple's energy comes from renewable sources
Apple has announced that it is now receives 75% of its power from renewable energy. That is to say that all of its corporate facilities receive the majority of their energy needs through renewable sources of power. Hydrogen fuel-cells and solar power are among the most popular renewable power sources for Apple. Much of the company's efforts in the realm of renewable energy can be found at its massive data center in Maiden, North Carolina. There, the largest end-user-owned solar power system in the U.S, can be found, as well as a comprehensive hydrogen fuel-cell network that helps power the data center. The solar array itself produces 20 MWs of renewable energy, with another 20 MWs expected to come online later this year.

Solar and hydrogen account for much of company's energy needs
Apple has plans to receive 100% of its energy from renewable sources in the near future. In the past, the company has been criticized for its environmental impact by environmental groups around the world. The company has also taken note of the rising costs of fossil fuels. In an effort to address these issues, Apple turned to renewable energy and found that solar and hydrogen fuel were capable enough to meet the company's needs.

Apple may be a strong example for others
Solar energy and hydrogen fuel are expected to continue playing major roles in the company's future. Apple does have some interest in other forms of renewable energy, such as wind and hydroelectric, but has only levied modest investments in both forms of renewable power. Apple may help serve as an example to other large companies that renewable energy is not only viable but solar and hydrogen, in particular, are effective ways to meet energy demand.

Scientists unlock nature's hydrogen secrets

www.radioaustralia.net.au
10 Nov 2012

Professors Rob Stranger and Ron Pace from the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University (ANU) have used computer modelling to reveal the molecular structure of the photosynthesis reaction site in plants. Professor Pace says the discovery takes a leaf out of nature's handbook, for the first time identifying the specific water molecules in a plant's photosystem that are converted into oxygen. "Nature very early on in the evolutionary process on Earth figured out how to do this particular piece of chemistry with close to 100% efficiency", he said.

Professor Stranger says the work offers clues as to how scientists can create alternative fuel. "The part of the plant's photosystem that is important to this process is called the oxygen-evolving-complex (OEC)", he said. "If we can steal nature's secrets and understand how the OEC performs its chemistry, then we can learn to make hydrogen much more efficiently, and hydrogen is the fuel for a totally renewable fuel future".

Professor Pace says that while scientists know the OEC contains four manganese atoms and a calcium atom, they have been trying for decades to determine the exact structure of the system and how it works. "Our work confirms the OEC structure and means researchers can progress new fuel developments based on photosynthesis", he said.

New method
Scientists have been splitting water molecules to create hydrogen gas for decades, but the process requires electricity. Professor Stranger says the current system of using electricity from other sources to create hydrogen is wasteful and not ideal. "This has been a very big challenge for chemists and scientists", he said. "We did computer modelling to try and rationalise [how photosynthesis does it] and try and make sense of it. "So did a lot of other people worldwide, but they didn't get anywhere with it, but we were able to".

Professor Pace says other scientists had less luck because they underestimated nature's creativity. "It turns out that nature very cleverly doesn't charge the process up more than is absolutely necessary", he said. "That's what's confused our colleagues because they believed that the chemistry wasn't quite that clever. "We can see now that you don't need to use as much electric charge as was previously thought, which is very important. "The more you do that, the more dangerous you make this reaction, which is already the most dangerous reaction in nature".

The next step for the two scientists is to publish their findings before handing it over to a laboratory to try and mimic the process of photosynthesis, something they believe will be a reality within five years. But Professor Pace is quick to ease thoughts the future will involve leaving a car in the sun and fuelling it up with a garden hose. "If I was a shonk I'd tell you yes", he said. "But in fact that's not the way I see it sensibly happening".

Liquid air 'offers energy storage hope'

www.bbc.co.uk
2 Oct 2012

Turning air into liquid may offer a solution to one of the great challenges in engineering-how to store energy. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers says liquid air can compete with batteries and hydrogen to store excess energy generated from renewables. IMechE says "wrong-time" electricity generated by wind farms at night can be used to chill air to a cryogenic state at a distant location. When demand increases, the air can be warmed to drive a turbine.

Engineers say the process to produce "right-time" electricity can achieve an efficiency of up to 70%. MechE is holding a conference today to discuss new ideas on how using "cryo-power" can benefit the low-carbon economy. The technology was originally developed by Peter Dearman, a garage inventor in Hertfordshire, to power vehicles. A new firm, Highview Power Storage, was created to transfer Mr Dearman's technology to a system that can store energy to be used on the power grid. The process, part-funded by the government, has now been trialled for two years at the back of a power station in Slough, Buckinghamshire.

More than hot air The results have attracted the admiration of IMechE officials. "I get half a dozen people a week trying to persuade me they have a brilliant invention", head of energy Tim Fox told BBC News. "In this case, it is a very clever application that really does look like a potential solution to a really great challenge that faces us as we increase the amount of intermittent power from renewables".

Dr Fox urged the government to provide incentives in its forthcoming electricity legislation for firms to store energy on a commercial scale with this and other technologies. IMechE says the simplicity and elegance of the Highview process is appealing, especially as it addresses not just the problem of storage but also the separate problem of waste industrial heat.

• The process follows a number of stages:
• "Wrong-time electricity" is used to take in air, remove the CO2 and water vapour (these would freeze otherwise)
• the remaining air, mostly nitrogen, is chilled to -190C (-310F) and turns to liquid (changing the state of the air from gas to liquid is what stores the energy)
• the liquid air is held in a giant vacuum flask until it is needed
• when demand for power rises, the liquid is warmed to ambient temperature. As it vaporizes, it drives a turbine to produce electricity - no combustion is involved

IMechE says this process is only 25% efficient but it is massively improved by co-siting the cryo-generator next to an industrial plant or power station producing low-grade heat that is currently vented and being released into the atmosphere. The heat can be used to boost the thermal expansion of the liquid air. More energy is saved by taking the waste cool air when the air has finished chilling, and passing it through three tanks containing gravel. The chilled gravel stores the coolness until it is needed to restart the air-chilling process.

Delivering durability
Highview believes that, produced at scale, their kits could be up to 70% efficient, and IMechE agrees this figure is realistic. "Batteries can get 80% efficiency so this isn't as good in that respect", explains Dr Fox. "But we do not have a battery industry in the UK and we do have plenty of respected engineers to produce a technology like this. "What's more, it uses standard industrial components-which reduces commercial risk; it will last for decades and it can be fixed with a spanner".

In the future, it is expected that batteries currently used in electric cars may play a part in household energy storage. But Richard Smith, head of energy strategy for National Grid, told BBC News that other sorts of storage would be increasingly important in coming decades and should be incentivised to commercial scale by government. He said: "Storage is one of four tools we have to balance supply and demand, including thermal flexing (switching on and off gas-fired power stations); interconnections, and demand-side management. Ultimately it will be down to economics".

Mr Dearman, who also invented the MicroVent resuscitation device used in ambulances, told BBC News he was delighted at the success of his ideas. He said he believed his liquid air engine would prevail against other storage technologies because it did not rely on potentially scarce materials for batteries. "I have been working on this off and on for close on 50 years", he told BBC News.

"I started when I was a teenager because I thought there wouldn't be enough raw materials in the world for everyone to have a car. There had to be a different way. Then somehow I came up with the idea of storing energy in cold. "It's hard to put into words to see what's happening with my ideas today".

John Scott, from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), added: "At present, pumped-hydroelectric storage is the only practical bulk storage medium in the British grid. "However, locations are very restricted", he told BBC News. "In the future, if new storage technologies can be deployed at a lower cost than alternatives, it would benefit the power system". A spokesman for the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (Decc) said it would shortly launch a scheme to incentivise innovation in energy storage. Other grants are available from Ofgem.

New cobalt catalyst can split hydrogen from water

resourceinvestingnews.com
26 Sep 2012

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have produced hydrogen from water using an inexpensive cobalt catalyst, the university said. The research is gaining attention because hydrogen can be used as a fuel in combination with fuel-cells, which are seen as a growing source of green energy.

The scientists' work is also noteworthy because the cobalt catalyst will work in conditions useful to industry. That means the catalyst uses fresh water, tolerates oxygen in the atmosphere and runs at room temperature.

Hydrogen is currently produced from fossil fuels, creating the greenhouse gas CO₂ as a by-product. Hence it is neither renewable nor clean. "A green process such as sunlight-driven water splitting is therefore required to produce 'green and sustainable [hydrogen],'" the University of Cambridge said in a statement.

The cobalt catalyst comes in handy because until now scientists have had a tough time finding an efficient and inexpensive catalyst that can function under real-world conditions--using pH neutral water, surrounded by oxygen and at room temperature. Currently, highly-efficient catalysts such as platinum are too expensive and cheaper alternatives are inefficient, the researchers said.

"Our research has shown that inexpensive materials such as cobalt are suitable to fulfil this challenging requirement", Dr. Erwin Reisner, the lead author of the research and head of the Christian Doppler Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, said in a university circular. "Of course, many hurdles such as the rather poor stability of the catalyst remain to be addressed, but our finding provides a first step to produce 'green hydrogen' under relevant conditions".

While it is too early to tell what impact this development will have on demand for cobalt, new applications for cobalt are generally seen as positive for the mineral, which is in oversupply; new uses could boost demand.

Global mine production of cobalt was 98,000 tonnes in 2011, according to the US Geological Survey. With two more mines coming on board in the next few years, London-based CRU has estimated that demand for cobalt will rise to over 100,000 tonnes of refined consumption a year by 2016. The market is expected to remain in oversupply at least until then.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) sources nearly two-thirds of the world's cobalt, most of which is refined in China. Zambia, Russia, Australia, Brazil and Canada also produce some cobalt, but the main players are the DRC and China. The Cambridge researchers, in the meantime, look forward to creating a sunlight-driven hydrogen system.

Fezile Lakadamyali and Masaru Kato, co-authors of the study, told New Energy and Fuel, "[w]e are excited about our results and we are optimistic that we will successfully assemble a sunlight-driven water splitting system soon". New Energy and Fuel added that it would be a breakthrough if the team "could get the hydrogen ready to store or reconnected to a carbon atom".

New hydrogen filling stations in Europe and Japan

www.4-traders.com
7 Sep 2012

The automotive industry has announced that vehicles powered by fuel-cell technology will be on the market by 2015. Air Liquide is preparing for the emergence of hydrogen in transport by supporting the rollout of the necessary filling station infrastructure globally. These developments have recently received strong government backing in Europe and Asia.

Today, Air Liquide officially opened its first public hydrogen filling station for passenger cars in Germany, in the city of Duesseldorf. This state of the art station will be followed by 10 new hydrogen filling stations that will be designed, built and rolled out in the next three years under the auspices of the German government's major demonstration project. By 2015 Germany will have a supply network of at least 50 public filling stations.

Those new steps are in line with the Group's announcement in October 2011 that it would invest in 20 new stations in Europe. Driven by the same dynamic, two other stations have been installed recently by Air Liquide in Oslo, Norway, and in the Swiss city of Brugg.

In Japan, the government sees hydrogen as a promising major energy source for cars and expects to install about 100 hydrogen distribution stations for fuel-cell vehicles by 2015. Air Liquide Japan intends to build a significant number of them and, in support of this goal, has recently set up a specialized team focused on the hydrogen business. The Group is already very active in Japan in this field, having so far installed 3 hydrogen energy stations (in Tokyo, Kawasaki, and Saga). One of these stations demonstrated the feasibility of a complete "Blue Hydrogen" chain, from wood chips to clean mobility.

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BOC to fuel Scotland s first fleet of hydrogen buses

www.equities.com

BOC, the industrial gases and clean energy business, is to provide the refuelling technology for Scotland s first fleet of hydrogen-powered buses. The project, which includes funding from the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, the Technology Strategy Board and the European Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, aims to have 10 buses operating on the streets of Aberdeen by 2014.

Launching the programme at Aberdeen s Marischal Hall, Scotland s First Minister Alex Salmond said, Hydrogen buses will produce zero local emissions. Aberdeen is already Europe s offshore energy capital and this exciting new project can help position it as a leading city for low carbon technology and green transport. With a strong group of project partners, this initiative will boost Scotland s profile as a key hydrogen technology hub and a world-leading investment location for pioneering low carbon energy and transport systems.

Aberdeen City Council leader Barney Crockett commented: This funding is a vital contribution to Aberdeen City Council and its partners work to introduce a fleet of hydrogen buses to the area. I believe this initiative will stimulate further innovative hydrogen technology projects and attract even more high-level investment to this city. It is a crucial step towards Aberdeen becoming a world-leading, smart hydrogen city.

For BOC, a member of The Linde Group, the project represents another stage in establishing hydrogen power as a viable transport option in the UK. Nick Rolf, BOC Innovation Manager for Hydrogen Systems, noted: This will be the UK s largest demonstration of hydrogen fuel-cell buses and cements Aberdeen s position as a pioneer in the field of low carbon mobility. The project will also provide a template for the production of hydrogen from renewable sources on a scale that is unmatched elsewhere in the UK.

The hydrogen-powered buses will be operated on First and Stagecoach bus routes in the city by early 2014 and refuelled at Scotland s first commercial-scale hydrogen refuelling station, which will be owned and operated by BOC. The design of this state-of-the-art station will also allow the refuelling of hydrogen-powered passenger cars as they become available in the future.

A novel aspect of this project is that the hydrogen will be produced by electrolysis. A 1MWe electrolyser provided by BOC will split ordinary water into hydrogen and oxygen. Scottish & Southern Energy Power Distribution (SSEPD) will work with BOC to harness the electricity from a nearby wind farm to power the electrolyser which will also operate in a grid balancing capacity. The hydrogen produced will be stored for use with the bus fleet but can be converted back to electricity to supplement mains supplies at times of peak demand.

Isle of Wight to become UK’s hydrogen fuel test bed

www.energyefficiencynews.com
19 Jul 2012

The Isle of Wight off the UK's south coast is to become a test bed for hydrogen fuel technology in a £4.66 million project led by energy storage and clean fuel company ITM Power. With a £1.3 million grant from the government-backed Technology Strategy Board, ITM Power will partner on the project with Ecoisland Partnership CIC-a community-based initiative aiming to make the Isle of Wight self-sustaining by the end of the decade.

The project is one of five being sponsored by the Technology Strategy Board, which also include an end-to-end, green hydrogen production, distribution and retailing system in London; a wind-powered hydrogen generation system in Aberdeen to serve a fleet of fuel-cell buses and two solar-generated hydrogen projects in Swindon and Surrey.

Also taking part in the Isle of Wight project and providing backing are SSE, Toshiba, IBM, Cable and Wireless, Cheetah Marine, the National Physical Laboratory, Arcola Energy, the Universitie of Glamorgan and University of Nottingham. The island will be home to a hydrogen energy production, storage and vehicle refuelling system, which will be integrated into the existing power network. An electrolyser-based refueller will be linked into the island's renewable energy developments to serve as a demand side management load.

Low-carbon hydrogen will be produced for use as a vehicle fuel, which will be supplied by two grid-connected hydrogen refuelling platforms. The larger of the two refuellers will be sited on a centrally located business park to serve a fleet of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles from Hyundai, Microcab and River Simple. Vestas Wind Systems, SSE and Southern Water will be using the hydrogen-powered vehicles as part of the car club being set up by Ecoisland Partnership CIC.

The other, smaller refueller will be located on the south coast of the island to serve hydrogen-powered boats. "Ecoisland represents a quantum leap for renewable technologies in the UK", says ITM Power CEO Graham Cooley. "ITM's energy storage and clean fuel technology will be at the heart of this project that gives us an ideal opportunity to link our equipment with world leading smart grid technologies to create the integrated energy grid of the future".

How boat engineering is keeping hydrogen power hopes buoyant

www.guardian.co.uk
28 Jun 2012

The Ross Barlow looks like a traditional canal barge, built 100 years ago to be drawn by a horse, travelling at the same speed as modern diesel engine vessels. However the 18 metre boat is one of the most technically advanced in the world. Silent and greenhouse gas-emission free, it can cruise the canals for at least a week on a minimum of fuel. The brainchild of Prof Rex Harris of University of Birmingham's school of engineering is a hydrogen-powered craft, and this week has been one of the stars of a convention in Birmingham that is bringing together key people in the race to find low-carbon transport fuels for ships.

The hydrogen on the Ross Barlow is stored onboard in a large-scale metal hydride storage system, which can handle large amounts of hydrogen at room temperature. The hydrogen is released by decreasing the pressure to feed the barge's fuel-cell (an electric battery, in effect). According to Harris, boats are better placed than cars to run on clean hydrogen because the weight of the heavy tank that stores the fuel is immaterial and can replace ballast. "They are at the cutting edge of the hydrogen fuel revolution", he says. "It is widely recognised that the world has only a few years to meet the urgent challenges of climate change and oil depletion".

Longer terms aims of the University of Birmingham project include the development of a canal-side hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, and to generate hydrogen from renewable sources of electricity on suitable sites throughout the canal network. Elsewhere, two British ferry companies are now developing hybrid hydrogen-powered boats, for the Scottish isles and Bristol, but the biggest practical advances in the nascent technology are coming from mainland European countries. Germany and Greece both have hydrogen fuel-cell-driven submarines, Turkish students at Istanbul Technical University have built a ferry, a hydrogen-powered boat cruises the Amsterdam canals and there are advanced plans for ocean-going hydrogen container vessels.

The increasing price of diesel fuel, the need to reduce carbon emissions, and the soaring cost for railway electrification is also boosting research into a new breed of hydrogen railway trains. Coincidentally, scientists working on hydrogen trains around the world will also meet in Birmingham next week. The first hydrogen-powered locomotive was built for a mine in Canada in 2002 and in the past 10 years, fuell cell trains have been developed in Taiwan, Japan, South Africa, Spain and Denmark with more others planned for China. The state-owned Spanish railway company has demonstrated a "hydrail tram", and has announced that it will launch Europe's first hydrail train later this year.

Hydrogenics joins Enbridge in developing utility-scale energy storage

www.brandonsun.com
23 Apr 2012

MISSISSAUGA, Ont.-Hydrogenics Corp. and pipeline giant Enbridge Inc. have announced a joint venture to develop utility-scale energy storage in North America. The agreement, which includes a $5 million equity investment in the hydrogen generation company by Enbridge, brings together Hydrogenics' expertise in water electrolysis with Enbridge's expertise in natural gas pipeline networks and renewable energy generation.

Under the program, hydrogen produced during periods of excess renewable generation will be injected into Enbridge's existing natural gas pipeline network, proportionally increasing the renewable energy content in natural gas pipelines for essentially the operating cost of the electrolyzer. "Small quantities of hydrogen can be manageable in existing natural gas pipeline networks", the companies said in a joint release. "With the significant scale of the natural gas pipeline network, these same quantities of hydrogen have a very meaningful impact on electricity energy storage potential".

The collaboration between Hydrogenics and Enbridge will initially focus on the deployment of utility-scale energy storage in Ontario, with the opportunity to expand into Enbridge's operations elsewhere. "This clean energy solution establishes a bridge between the electricity and natural gas networks to bring seasonal storage capabilities to electricity networks", Enbridge spokesman Chuck Szmurlo said in a release. "This is another example of how Enbridge is investing in alternative energy technologies that complement our pipeline businesses while contributing to our growth in renewable and clean energy", said Szmurlo, vice-president of alternative and emerging technology.

Hydrogenics president and CEO Daryl Wilson said the two companies look forward to advancing the commercialization of hydrogen energy storage solutions that have GW-hour potential for electricity storage. "With distinct advantages over conventional energy storage methods, the hydrogen solution provides unrivalled energy storage capacity and application flexibility to meet the growing need for energy storage by North America's electricity grid operators".

Enbridge, with some 6,900 employees, operates the world's biggest crude oil and liquids transportation system with pipelines across North America and is Canada's largest natural gas distribution company with operations in Ontario, Quebec and New York state. It also has a significant and growing involvement in natural gas gathering and midstream businesses, and an increasing involvement in power transmission and has interests in close to 1,000 MWs of renewable and alternative energy generating capacity.

Apple plans nation’s biggest private fuel cell energy project at N.C. data center

www.newsobserver.com
31 Mar 2012

Apple plans nation's biggest private fuel-cell energy project at N.C, data center North Carolina will be home to the nation's largest private fuel-cell energy project, a nonpolluting, silent power plant that will generate electricity from hydrogen. Apple (yes, that Apple) filed its plans with the N.C. Utilities Commission on Thursday to build the 4.8 MW project in Maiden, about 40 miles northwest of Charlotte. That's where Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple has built a data center to support the company's iCloud online data storage system and its SIRI voice-recognition software.

The fuel-cell project, the nation's largest such project not built by an electric utility company, will be developed this year. It will be located on the same data complex that will host a planned 20 MW solar farm-the biggest ever proposed in this state. But it's the fuel-cell project that's generating buzz, eclipsing anything ever dreamed of in California, the nation's epicenter for fuel-cell projects. "That's a huge vote of confidence in fuel-cells", said James Warner, policy director of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association in Washington. fuel-cells generate electricity through an electro-chemical process and are compared to batteries that give out power as long as they have a source of hydrogen.

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Fuel Cell Energy

news.cnet.com
15 Mar 2012

Hydrogen fueling stations--they're coming: Two key players in the hydrogen manufacturing arena will be working together to make hydrogen fueling stations a reality for the fuel-cell vehicles that should be coming to market in the second half of this decade.

Air Products and FuelCell Energy have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to market stationary Direct Fuel Cell (DFC) power plants. These systems, manufactured by FuelCell Energy, are designed to take natural gas or renewable biogas and produce hydrogen, electricity, and heat.

Read more…

Hydrogen power in real life: Clean and energy efficient

www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (Mar. 13, 2012)--Since 2009, a hydrogen powered street cleaning vehicle has been undergoing testing on the streets of Basel. The project is intended to take hydrogen drives out of the laboratory and onto the streets in order to gain experience on using them under practical conditions. The result of the pilot trial: hydrogen as a fuel for municipal utility vehicles saves energy, is environmentally friendly and is technically feasible. In order to make it cost-effective, however, the prices of fuel-cells, pressurized storage tanks and electric drives must all drop significantly.

To develop a prototype and then test it right away under everyday conditions of use is not an easy undertaking, and setbacks are practically preprogrammed. The hydrogen powered street cleaning vehicle, which took about 18 months to develop and began trials in Basel in 2009, is no exception. "It became clear relatively quickly that the fuel-cell system, which had been developed as a one-of specially for the project, was not yet ready for use in a real-life setting", explains project leader Christian Bach, head of Empa's Internal Combustion Engines Laboratory. "On top of that, the various safety systems kept interfering with each other and bringing everything to a halt".

Read more…

Wind Power closes NY Hydrogen fuel loop

www.earthtechling.com
11 Jan 2012

Hempstead, N.Y., launched the first hydrogen fueling station on Long Island more than two years ago, but it turns out that was just an initial step toward sustainably powering fuel-cell vehicles in its fleet. Now Hempstead has added a 100 kW ( kW) capacity wind turbine to the mix, giving it the ability to create hydrogen fuel without sucking power from the grid.

According to the US Department of Energy (DOE)-which funded the $615,000, 121-foot-tall turbine through a Recovery Act grant-Hempstead had been using about 200,000 kW-hours of grid electricity, most of which comes from fossil fuel sources, to run an electrolyzer to generate hydrogen for the fuel station. In its assessment of the project, the DOE said the turbine should be able to generate enough electricity to replace that grid-purchased power. And that possibility had the town's political leadership waxing poetic.

"The answer to clean and renewable energy is 'blowin' in the wind,'" town Supervisor Kate Murray said in a statement. "This wind turbine is creating renewable energy, saving money, conserving natural resources and building an environmentally responsible legacy for our children and our children's children".

Hempstead calls itself a town, but it's no small burg; it has a population around 750,000. And it has green ambitions that are every bit as large. The wind-to-hydrogen system is just one part of a larger Clean Energy Project at Point Lookout, 35 miles southeast of Midtown Manhattan. There's also a shellfish nursery powered by a 2.4 kW wind turbine and two 5- kW solar arrays; a 10- kW solar array on the roof of the Administration Building; and a zero-energy solar home built by the New York Institute of Technology.

The fuel station itself has several elements, as well, providing pure hydrogen, compressed natural gas (CNG) or a blend of hydrogen and compressed natural gas (HCNG). Toyota has provided two fuel-cell hybrid vehicles valued at around $100,000 for use by the town. The blended hydrogen/compressed natural gas fuels a new shuttle bus that's used for a senior program, and a Ford E450 shuttle bus, supplied by CNG company Clean Vehicle Solutions, has been "upfitted to run on natural gas and calibrated to run on the HCNG fuel", according to the town.

All that, and Hempstead isn't done: The town received a total of $4.6 million in grants from the DOE, and has further renewable energy plans unfolding, with the money financing the construction of a "60K (we assume they mean kW) solar field, two solar trackers, a solar-powered carport and a geothermal energy project that will address heating and cooling needs at the town's Conservation and Waterways facility".

And while Hempstead seems to be doing just fine on the clean energy front already, it could be in for more support from the state. According to the state's League of Conservation Voters, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's recent State of the State speech put new emphasis on clean energy and the environment.

"For too long, New York has sat idly by as its sustainability challenges mounted", Marcia Bystryn, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters, said in a statement. "Governor Cuomo made a serious commitment to caring for our natural resources, rebuilding vital infrastructure and transitioning to a clean-energy future".

The league said it was particularly heartened by the governor's vow to facilitate the growth of wind power through a new "Energy Highway" that will connect wind farms with population centers, and his commitment to double the amount of solar power capacity in New York by the end of the year and quadrupling it by 2013 through the NY-Sun Program.

E.ON tests wind-power storage in German gas supply network

www.rechargenews.com
16 Nov 2011

German utility E.ON has unveiled plans for a €5m ($6.8m) pilot plant that would use wind power to produce hydrogen for storage in the country's existing gas grid. The facility, in Falkenhagen in northeast Germany, will use power from intermittent renewable sources to generate about 360 cubic metres of hydrogen per hour through electrolysis-the process by which hydrogen and oxygen can be separated out of water.

Hydrogen produced at the plant, expected online in 2013, will be blended into the natural gas flowing in the Ontras pipeline, making the grid a storage system for renewable energy. "We need new storage capacities so that we can further increase the share of weather-dependent wind power in our generation portfolio in coming years", says Klaus-Dieter Maubach, the member of the E.ON board responsible for technology and development. "Using the existing gas infrastructure to store hydrogen is a promising approach in the long run, enabling us to combine our strengths as a power and gas company".

E.ON foresees increasing the concentration of hydrogen mixed into the gas from current levels of 5% to 15% "in the medium term". According to E.ON, the world's entire current renewable power output could be stored on the German gas grid. The company is also fast-tracking plans to boost its pumped-hydropower storage capacity. It intends to expand the existing pumped-hydropower facility at Edersee in the federal state of Hesse and has joined a consortium building a new plant on the German-Austrian border.

Australian researchers develop prototype truck that runs on hydrogen

www.asianscientist.com
10 Nov 2011

AsianScientist (Nov. 10, 2011)-RMIT University researchers have developed Australia's first hydrogen fuel-cell truck, demonstrating how vehicle design and new sustainable technologies can make freight transport clean, green and silent. The small-scale model-an exact replica of the Scania Highline series-is operated by remote control and simulates the performance of a long-haul diesel truck, typically used between Melbourne and Sydney.

Professor Aleksandar Subic, Head of the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, said given the carbon tax, emissions trading and rising diesel costs, new sustainable technologies offered industry a way of stabilising costs. "For residents worried about fumes and noise, the prospect of a silent, zero-emission truck is exciting", he said. "This latest innovation stems from our comprehensive research into sustainable mobility involving hydrogen technologies. We are also researching production of hydrogen using photovoltaic arrays and electrolyses, and solid state hydrogen storage", he added.

The hydrogen-powered electrical system could also supply power for truck air-conditioning and radio, along with a trailer refrigeration unit. Hydrogen refilling stations are powered through solar PV panels. RMIT Associate Professor John Andrews said students were testing the small-scale truck against pre-defined dynamic loads, with the result being scaled up using mathematical models to predict the performance of a full-scale truck.

"A wireless data system is being used to monitor truck performance and collect the critical data such as hydrogen consumption rate and electrical power supply", Prof. Andrews said. Road freight transport is an AU$35 billion industry in Australia, and the nation has some of the highest freight levels per capita in the world. Trucks account for about 20% of Australia's greenhouse emissions by road vehicles.

Fuel cell cars edge into fast lane

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
17 Oct 2011, Page: 53

The Mercedes-Benz B-class F-cell is one of the first cars of its kind: a high performance, zero emissions vehicle that runs on hydrogen and oxygen fuel-cells. While the fuel-cells are currently very expensive, being constructed using expensive materials like platinum, European Union expert and Z GW board member Werner Tillmetz believes the advent of peak oil will be the turning point.

Speaking from southern Germany, Mr Tillmetz estimates that the world has used half of its oil reserves and has nearly reached the limit of how much oil can be produced per day, but the demand for cars grows exponentially. Mr Tillmetz, who was with Daimler for 15 years, says electric battery cars have a limited range, but foresees fuel-cells being used for longer trips and battery electric cars being used in cities. Christian Mohrdieck from Daimler says both options are being developed. It is worth noting that in Australia, an electric car would most likely use energy derived from a coal-fired power station.

Johannes Arnold from the DLR Institute of Technical thermodynamics believes that some kind of hybrid of the two systems is a likely outcome. General Motors, Toyota and Honda are focused on fuel-cells, while B MW and Volkswagen are moving towards battery electric. Mr Tillmetz says petrol stations would need to add a new product (in the form of battery exchanges or hydrogen pumps) as they did with diesel and liquefied petroleum gas.

Research by McKinsey & Co found that by 2030, consumers would pay a premium of between 7% and 20% for a clean energy car. Toyota, Honda, General Motors and Hyundai have talked of putting fuel-cell cars on the market in the next few years. Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche says his company will release such a vehicle in 2014.

First fuel-cell scooter to hit road for tests

www.theleader.com.au
24 Apr, 2011

Suzuki has become the world's first motorcycle maker to earn Whole Vehicle Type Approval 1 compliance for a fuel-cell-powered vehicle in the European Union with a squadron of its Burgman scooters set to hit the road for testing.
Initially only one fuel-cell scooter was given permission to test in Britain with approval from the British government's Technology Strategy Board 2 with single vehicle approval for each scooter used in the trials. The new Europe-wide approval means the single vehicle approval is no longer necessary.

Suzuki's Burgman fuel-cell scooter made its debut at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show and since February last year Suzuki and British company Intelligent Energy, developer of the bike's fuel-cell system, have been involved with on-road trials. The scooter employs an air-cooled fuel-cell and hydrogen tank inside its frame to produce electricity which in turn powers a drive motor and the only exhaust emission is water. Suzuki says it wants to have fuel-cell scooters ready to go when hydrogen filling stations come on line across Europe.