EU policies on energy have for a long time been anchored to three key goals - greenhouse gas emission reduction, security of supply, and employment. Implementation has since the mid-90's put priority on renewable energy sources (RES). The current target is set at 12 % for the contribution of RES to EU's gross inland energy consumption by 2010.
An increasing share of renewable power will cause additional strain on the grid, and the intermittency of the renewable power may cause increasing challenges of balancing the grid. RES also offer new opportunities in remote areas with weak or no access to the power grid provided the intermittency and reliability challenges can be solved. Increasing use of RES therefore creates a need for efficient methods to store renewable power.
Hydrogen is an energy carrier that may be used for storing surplus intermittent renewable power. Having stored the hydrogen, it may be used to regenerate electricity to the local grid when there is a power deficit. Such a renewable hydrogen energy system can provide the balancing of supply and demand for decentralised energy markets.
Hydrogen offers particular benefit in being a universal and storable energy carrier because it also enables penetration of renewable energy into new markets such as the market for transport fuel.
The wind - to hydrogen technology pioneered at Hydro's Utsira demonstration plant has been widely recognised as a beneficial way to utilise surplus wind power, providing reliable renewable power to remote areas. This demonstration plant - the first full scale windhydrogen plant in the world - started operations in 2004, and is currently being tested and operated as an autonomous plant. The successful demonstration of the Utsira concept may support the further growth of renewable energy in remote areas.
EU policies on energy have for a long time been anchored to three key goals - greenhouse gas emission reduction, security of supply, and employment. Implementation has since the mid-90's put a priority on renewable energy sources (RES). The current target is set at 12 percent for the contribution of RES to the EU's gross inland energy consumption by 2010, and a 22 percent indicative share of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in total EU electricity consumption by 2010.
With an increasing share of renewable power as e.g. wind power linked to local or regional grids, the intermittency of the renewable power may cause increasing problems for the grid operator. High shares of wind power in a grid like in Western Denmark may cause power balancing problems, while large RES developments in rural areas like Northern Norway may put additional strain on a grid with already limited transfer capacity.
In islands and remote areas and in less developed areas of the world, RES offer opportunities in regions with little or no access to central power supply. The main challenge here is reliability and quality of supply, and storage is needed to balance and secure a high quality electricity supply.
