The project, which will be located at NREL's Flatirons Campus in Arvada, Colo. , uses GKN Hydrogen's storage technology to store hydrogen in a solid state (metal hydrides) compared to traditional gaseous storage tanks.
The demonstration aims to evaluate the technology's performance and integration with clean energy systems, such as microgrids or fuel cells. The project also aims to identify the most beneficial uses of solid-state storage of clean renewable hydrogen.
At scale, this technology could help accelerate the transition to a net-zero emissions economy by increasing the availability of resilient, on-site renewable power generation and storage.
"This demonstration project highlights how surplus renewable energy can be used to create and store clean renewable hydrogen to help sustainably meet our country's growing energy demands," said Jawaad Malik, chief strategy and sustainability officer at SoCalGas.
"Continued advances in long duration storage technologies could play a crucial role in supporting on-site clean energy systems and offer an additional path to help accelerate the decarbonization of hard to electrify industries."
The demonstration project will use renewable energy sources like solar and wind to convert water into clean renewable hydrogen through an electrolyzer. Up to 500 kilograms of hydrogen can be stored in GKN Hydrogen's storage system in a solid state by binding the molecules in a metal hydride at low pressure without the need for compression. The hydrogen can then be used in an on-site fuel cell to create zero-emissions electricity.
