Luis Correas
Foundation for the Development of New Hydrogen Technologies in Aragon
要約
Using renewable energy sources for hydrogen generation is
only one of the possible production pathways. Furthermore,
hydrogen as energy carrier is as sustainable as its primary
energy source. There is not a general agreement on what will be the role of renewable energy in the forecasted hydrogen
economy.
A brief overview on the different pathways helps to focus
the attention on wind energy, which is the most developed
renewable technology. In addition, wind energy poses some
problems to the electric grid operator in high penetration cases,
which could happen in the near term in some European
countries. For this reason, even in the case that renewables
could only cover a portion of the energy production, there is a future role to play for hydrogen together with wind energy.
Aragon, located in north-east Spain, has abundant
renewable resources and a sound wind industry, with an
installed capacity of more than 1200 MW. Besides, solar
potential should also be taken into consideration in the mid
term. The Foundation for the Development of New Hydrogen
Technologies in Aragon is conceiving a demonstration and
development plan to situate the region as an early adopter of CO2 neutral hydrogen. As the cornerstone of the cluster of projects, a hydrogen generation facility should provide a real-scale test bench for the various wind and solar technologists, in addition to developers of power electronics and electrolysers. Forecast for start-up is spring 2007.