Comment by laughing_man

3 days ago

The press release says they use the wind energy to produce hydrogen. Seems like you could store the hydrogen and always have the plant running at capacity as long as the average power produced by the wind turbine(s) was enough.

1 comment

laughing_man

defrost 2 days ago

Built infrastructure for hydrogen storage and transport is always a challenge, it's a slippery little molecule that's expensive to contain in human built stuff.

That said, there's almost always a 'cheat' and for bulk hydrogen storage:

  Using salt caverns (cavities leached from salt deposits in the subsurface) for gas storage is an established technology. Salt caverns are good for storing gas because they have a very low permeability and cracks or fractures can re-seal to prevent leakage. The UK has salt deposits that are suitable for cavern storage and that have been used store natural gas since the 1960s. Hydrogen, used as a chemical feedstock, has been stored in salt caverns in Teesside since the 1970s.

~ https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68aebcef3a052...

Currently there are a few geological structures in Australia being tested for suitability and pilot storage.