| Solar-Hydrogen
Energy Cycle |
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| Diminishing
resources, more severe environmental
pollution and ever-increasing
demand for energy force
us to reconsider the structure
of our energy supply system. |
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 Our
global resources of fossil and nuclear fuels
are limited. The necessary changes in our
energy supply system can be accomplished if
we are able to establish regenerative energies
like solar, wind and hydroelectric energy
as a fundamental part of the energy market.
One issue we are faced with when we use solar
panels or wind power plants to produce electricity
is that energy supply and demand often do
not coincide. For example, a solar panel will
provide electricity during the day but we
might want to use electricity to power a light
in the evening. Or, we might want to use wind-generated
electricity in a place far away from the power
plant. Hence, when supply and demand do not
coincide we need a convenient way to both
store and transport regenerative energy. This
is where hydrogen comes into play, as a future
storage and transport medium for energy. The
combination of solar energy for electricity
production and hydrogen for energy transport
and storage is called the solar-hydrogen energy
cycle. During times when solar panels and
wind power plants supply more energy than
needed the excess energy is used to produce
hydrogen (bottom path on the transparency).
This is accomplished with electrolyzers that
use electricity to split water into oxygen
and hydrogen. The hydrogen (and potentially
the oxygen) can be stored and transported
as necessary. When we need electricity the
gas (es) are fed into a fuel cell which converts
the chemical energy of the hydrogen (and oxygen)
into electricity, water and heat. In this
way our energy demands can be met anywhere
and anytime.
Source: h-tec GmbH © h-tec GmbH
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| Solar-Hydrogen
Energy Cycle |
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