7/5/2023 0 Comments Boiling point of hydrogen![]() ![]() It’s a unique beast, and hard to judge because nothing similar at this scale is being attempted elsewhere. The report criticizes the oil and gas industry for pushing policies “that would increase hydrogen production from renewables and fossil fuels alike” and trying to obscure the difference.īut what about L.A.’s vision of shifting from coal to gas to hydrogen at its power plant outside Delta, Utah? Will that plan be a multibillion-dollar climate boondoggle, or a model for other cities and countries to follow? The Earthjustice report also notes that fossil fuels are used to produce nearly all the hydrogen in use today, unlike the “green” hydrogen that Mitsubishi and Magnum plan to produce in Utah. “This is a larger movement in the fossil fuel industry, going from denying the fact of climate change to just delaying climate action,” Gersen said. ![]() But they don’t want to see it used as an excuse to block policies that would cut oil demand by requiring the rapid rollout of electric cars, or cut natural gas demand in homes and businesses by promoting the use of electric heat pumps. The report’s coauthors, Sara Gersen and Sasan Saadat, told me hydrogen could be crucial for ditching fossil fuels in so-called “hard to electrify” parts of the economy, such as heavy industry, aviation and shipping. ![]() The nonprofit law firm Earthjustice cited several examples in a report last month, such as Southern California Gas arguing that cities shouldn’t require new buildings to have all-electric space and water heating, in part because hydrogen might someday be able to fully replace natural gas. “A company that continues to spend up to 90% of their investment capital on fossil fuels cannot claim to be part of the energy transition to confront the climate crisis,” the group said in a press release.Įnvironmentalists also worry about oil and gas companies exploiting the promise of hydrogen to kill climate policies that could reduce pollution much more quickly. But the activist shareholder group Follow This - which recently persuaded 61% of Chevron shareholders to support a resolution calling for the California company to slash emissions from the use of its products - pointed out that Chevron would likely spend 10 times that amount overall in the coming years. Chevron said this week it would spend $10 billion through 2028 on projects that reduce climate pollution, a tripling of its low-carbon investments. So it definitely won’t be cheap.īut is Chevron serious about accelerating the clean energy transition? Or is its investment in hydrogen a delaying tactic, a way to claim it’s taking action on climate change while continuing to focus most of its energies on oil and gas?Ĭlimate activists are skeptical. While Browning wouldn’t give me an overall price tag, the joint venture hopes to win a $595-million loan guarantee from the federal Department of Energy, and Browning suggested that wouldn’t cover the entire cost. Chevron declined my interview request, but clearly the company brings deep pockets to the project. That’s where hydrogen really has an advantage.”Įnter Chevron: The oil giant said last week it had “agreed on a framework to acquire an equity interest in” the Mitsubishi/Magnum joint venture. “But sometimes that’s moving power from April to October. “Sometimes that’s moving power from the middle of the afternoon to the early evening,” he said. Paul Browning, president of Mitsubishi Power, told me the companies would use renewable electricity to produce hydrogen on sunny, wind days, then convert the fuel back to electricity “when it has its highest value to the grid.” The Intermountain storage project is a joint venture between a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Utah-based Magnum Development, which owns the underground salt domes. And it can be banked for long periods of time before being burned, essentially allowing sunlight and wind to be “stored” for times of year when those renewable power sources are not so abundant. What makes hydrogen so attractive? It can be produced by simple electrolysis, using solar or wind power to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The project’s developer was initially focused on a different type of energy storage known as compressed air, but hydrogen has since emerged as the big-ticket item. Salt domes are common on the Gulf Coast, but extremely rare out West. The project is called Advanced Clean Energy Storage, and it would involve pumping hydrogen into naturally occurring underground salt domes that happen to be located across the street from the coal plant - a happy coincidence, as I explained in a 2019 story. ![]()
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