Duke Energy Corp. plans to build and operate an end-to-end green hydrogen system at its DeBary Solar Power Plant in Florida.
The project will be the "nation's first system capable of producing, storing and combusting 100% green hydrogen in a combustion turbine," the company said in an Oct. 27 announcement.
Project construction will begin later this year and will take about a year to complete, according to Duke. Following that schedule, the system could be installed and fully functioning in 2024.
The system will operate at Duke Energy Florida LLC's 74.5-MW DeBary power plant in Volusia County, Fla. Solar energy from the DeBary plant will power two 1-MW electrolyzer units to separate water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen.
The resulting oxygen will be released into the atmosphere while the "green" hydrogen will be delivered to nearby, reinforced containers for safe storage. At times of high energy demand, the system will deliver the stored hydrogen to a combustion turbine that will be upgraded using GE Vernova technology to run on a natural gas/hydrogen blend or up to 100% hydrogen.
Duke said it would be the first operating combustion turbine in the US that can run on such a high percentage of hydrogen.
"Duke Energy anticipates hydrogen could play a major role in our clean energy future," said Regis Repko, Duke senior vice president of generation and transmission strategy. "Hydrogen has significant potential for decarbonization across all sectors of the US economy. It is a clean energy also capable of long-duration storage, which would help Duke Energy ensure grid reliability as we continue adding more renewable energy sources to our system."
The project is a collaboration between Duke, GE Vernova and construction engineering company Sargent & Lundy LLC.
The DeBary demonstration is part of Duke's "Vision Florida" program designed to test projects such as microgrids and battery storage, among others. The projects may consist of up to four emergency relief microgrid projects, a floating solar pilot project at the Hines Energy Complex, an investment in some form of hydrogen power and solar-plus-storage projects.
Total costs under the pilot for all projects cannot exceed $100 million, a Duke spokesperson told S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Earlier in October, NextEra Energy Inc. subsidiary Florida Power & Light Co. said the electrolyzer at its Cavendish nextGen Hydrogen Hub in Okeechobee County, also powered by solar, had begun producing hydrogen and is expected to be fully operational by the end of the year.
Green hydrogen-fueled power plants could become "economic for the first time" thanks to the layering of hydrogen and renewable energy tax credits authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act, according to a report from ICF International Inc. released in September.
The International Energy Agency recently warned that lagging clean hydrogen policy support and rising cost pressures for project developers could put investment plans at risk globally. IEA Chief Energy Technology Officer Timur Gul said electrolyzer deployment for green hydrogen production could follow a similar trajectory to that of solar photovoltaic over the last 10 to 15 years.
In the same September IEA report, though, the agency said low-carbon hydrogen production could increase substantially by 2030, reaching as much as 38 million metric tons per year if all announced projects are realized and greater policy efforts are implemented to stimulate demand. Three-quarters of that would come from electrolysis powered by renewables, or green hydrogen.
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