Green hydrogen is a necessary component of a grid with an increasing non-dispatchable renewable energy supply

Abstract

It is very well-known that wind and solar energy are supplied when there are resources, which are continuously changing, and not when demanded by the grid. Thus, in a grid without the supply of dispatchable electricity burning carbon and hydrocarbon combustion fuels, it is indispensable to include very large energy storage and given the variability not only short term within the day but from day to day following seasonality additional to weather, the large energy storage has to be mostly hydrogen. Extremely misleading are the cost assessment of prices of electricity to consumers through a Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) without factoring in dispatchability, as dispatchable and non-dispatchable electricity has a different value. Without energy storage, the production by wind and solar in the defect of the grid demand has to be supplied by other energy sources. Similarly, the production in excess would be wasted. This inconvenient truth has already produced increasing prices of electricity for customers. The Australian National Electricity Market data shows as phased with the uptake of wind and solar, in the absence of adequate energy storage, the price of energy supply has grown enormously. Without addressing the energy storage issue, mission net zero is incompatible with having cheap and abundant electricity.