Friday 9 September 2011

Wind power could be stored as hydrogen

Hydrogen technologies could one day help store excess energy produced by wind turbines. According to the Minister of State for Energy, Charles Hendry, hydrogen has long-term potential for both transport and distributed energy applications.

Mr Hendry told Parliament it was "technically feasible to use hydrogen to store power from wind farms", but such policy changes wouldn't happen until 2020, due to the relative costs of current energy storage.

Hydrogen is looked at favourably as an energy carrier because if used in fuel cells, it can offer zero emissions. It can be produced using low carbon routes such as electrolysis using renewable electricity, but currently the most economic technique is from fossil fuels currently.

Other wind power stories:

Wind accounts for record 10% of UK electricity

Wind power blows 131% more electricity

Vestas need orders to start Kent construction