Hydrogen fuel cells begin to show off in the world of competitive racing

[kristopher]

25. Would you propose putting peaking plants next to baseload plants?

Why would you want to co-locate the wind farm with the H2?

Looking at storage as a totally separate issue brings far more clarity to the problem it is meant to solve. When we conflate the role of storage with the role of variable resources, we are falling into the trap of working with a mental model based on large scale centralized thermal generation. We don't need to duplicate the properties of those plants to push penetration of variable resources; in fact, such a model incorrectly limits our intuitive sense of what variable resources are capable of doing. It also inflates the perceived direct cost of variable energy sources.

For example, think of the combination of generating sources necessary to fill the load profile of a centralized thermal system and then ask yourself if you associate
a) the cost of peaking power + the price of baseload coal/nuclear in the same way you are associating
b) the cost of flexible generation + the price of variable resources?

I know there could be some savings associated with less transmission, but that needs to be balanced with end user needs. Developing storage solutions that incorporate end user needs and resources are likely to be the most often used strategy for deploying storage technologies.

H2/fuel cells have a role but it really isn't a very efficient storage process for most applications.