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Idaho and Pacific Northwest National Labs join Idaho
Power in evaluating
potential to create hydrogen at hydropower plants
12 May
2023
By
Chris Galford
Idaho Power, Idaho National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory have partnered on a new effort to determine if existing
hydropower plants could integrate with hydrogen generation as a means
of energy storage, downstream
improvements and decarbonization.
Unlike many other forms of renewable energy, hydropower’s
advantage has always been its consistency of output. Adding hydrogen
production to the mix, the partners concluded, would help to balance
out those other generation forms and increase flexibility on the
system, particularly during hours of peak demand. Further, storing
said hydrogen would allow a cleaner alternative to fossil-fuel
backups.
“By capturing the off-peak energy production as hydrogen, the
hydrogen can be re-electrified during peak energy demand,” INL’s
Daniel Wendt, principal investigator and researcher on the project,
said.
Excess oxygen produced as a byproduct of hydrogen generation
could also aid water quality efforts, by reoxygenating water in rivers
with hydropower plants. Reservoirs behind dams sometimes face low
levels of dissolved oxygen, particularly in the summer and early fall,
but dissolved oxygen is needed for fish and other aquatic species to
thrive. According to Brett Dumas, Idaho Power’s director of
environmental affairs, the company has already seen results from
adding oxygen from the Brownlee Dam into the water flowing from it.
Data, models and analyses will be developed over the course of
the project, and potentially buoy hydropower and hydrogen integration
efforts nationwide. For Idaho Power, though, the efforts could have a
more practical effect, from the improved rivers to helping it chart a
path to more clean energy in its portfolio, all through the use of 17
already existing hydroelectric power plants.
“INL and PNNL will evaluate the coupling of electrolytic
hydrogen production technologies with hydropower plants to identify
scenarios that could help Idaho Power achieve its goal of providing
100% clean energy by 2045,” Dumas said.
Along the way, researchers will use a Department of Energy
software tool known as Hydrogen Analysis to perform screening studies
of the most promising electrolysis technologies and hydrogen use
cases, evaluating hydrogen production and usage at large. Separately,
the Hydrogen Energy Storage Evaluation Tool will be paired with data
analysis to model and optimize the hydrogen production system.
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