Natural Gas Pricing and Wind Power
For those of you wishing to understand the connection between natural gas pricing and the integration of wind power onto our grids, here’s a very scholarly piece by energy analyst and frequent 2GreenEnergy commenter Glenn Doty. Every time I click on one of Glenn’s articles I’m confident that I’ll be learning a lot, and this certainly did not disappoint.
When are you-all going to discard those outdated paradigms and realize there is a way for this to work, take the wind turbines and stop trying to sell the unstable power output to the electric grid. The grid needs steady power with a lot of Hysteresis. There is a better way ! use whatever electricity the turbine can make at any instant and use it to break down water into oxygen and hydrogen. use some of the electrical power to run compressors and pump hydrogen into the natural gas pipeline. lines where the hydrogen mixes with natural gas which is a mix of hydrogen and methane. it mixes and burns well for most users of natural gas without modification or adjustment of the burners, or turbine engines used for electrical peaking.The special point is the natural gas system has a large storage capability providing the Hysteresis for stability that allows the varying output of the wind turbine to be compensated for. The volume of natural gas pumped out of the wells is the compensating factor and the less gas consumed will result in longer life for the gas well. Simply stated use the gas distribution gas pipes to distribute the energy as needed. This can be done.
Dennis,
First you must understand the following statement: If an alternative costs considerably more than the current standard, it will not be acceptable.
That’s something that is absolutely key to understanding most of the issues involved with alternative energy: people will only adopt what is economically attractive. Wind power is inexpensive, but electrolyzers are not. If you use wind power to produce hydrogen, then that hydrogen will not be able to compete with fracked natural gas on a $/GJ basis. It’s simply not possible.
Another thing you need to understand is that hydrogen embrittles carbon steel. Hydrogen must be stored in specific stainless alloys that are resistant to hydrogen attack… If you charge a simple carbon steel pipeline with hydrogen gas, you’ll see the pipeline deteriorate quickly and you’ll see massive leakage – especially of the hydrogen, which is far “leakier” than other gasses.
We have outlined a better path – using the excess wind energy to produce hydrogen (which is now more expensive than natural gas), and converting that hydrogen into liquid fuels – diesel, jet fuel, gasoline, etc… (which are all FAR more expensive than the produced hydrogen). That path makes sense, as it can provide greater profit for each step in the chain.