Greentech Lead Germany: E.ON, a power and gas company in
the U.K, is constructing a power-to-gas pilot plant in Germany. The plant will
store the power generated by the wind in the gas grid.
The power-to-gas plant will be fully functional from
2013. It will handle excess power that is generated by wind farms and cannot be
fed into the power grid. By storing the excess power in this manner, the wind
farms can be freed from the bottlenecks in the power grid, and they will be
able to continue to generate power.
The power-to-gas plant works on the principle of
electrolysis. In the process about 360 m³ of hydrogen is produced per hour.
This hydrogen can then be treated like natural gas. Once the process is
complete, it can then be fed into the regional gas grid where it is then
available for producing heat and power.
The system offers large storage capacity. By converting hydrogen into synthetic
gas, the system can utilize the entire storage capacity of the gas grid without
worrying about the gas infrastructure safety.
The pilot project will contribute towards improving the
efficiency of the entire process — including the integration of wind power and
the injection of hydrogen into the gas grid. E.ON’s project will help enable
the power-to-gas technology to be used economically in the future and on an
industrial scale.
“If Germany expands the use of renewable energy
sources in the coming years as planned, the power supply on very windy or sunny
days will exceed demand more and more often, and to a growing extent. This will
increasingly bring the power grid to the limits of its capacity,” said
Klaus-Dieter Maubach, member of the E.ON AG Board of
Management responsible for technology and innovation.
“E.ON is therefore investing in the development of
technologies to store large energy volumes. In this respect, power-to-gas is a
promising solution for the future energy supply system,” Maubach said.
E.ON Climate & Renewables secures $122 million from JP
Morgan and Wells Fargo
Earlier this year E.ON Climate & Renewables
(EC&R) North America secured $122.2 million from JPM Capital (JP Morgan)
and Wells Fargo Wind Holdings in exchange for a partial interest in its
recently completed Settlers Trail Wind Farm.