News | Headlines
First GT operation on 100 % renewable H2
France Hydrogen economy Installed at Saillat-sur-Vienne, France, on the site of prominent paper packaging company Smurfit Kappa, the Hyflexpower project aims at the production, storage and re-electrification of 100 % renewable hydrogen. It is produced by a 1MW electrolyser, and then stored in a one-ton tank and used to power a Siemens Energy SGT- 400 industrial gas turbine.
Its latest successful series of tests is said to offer a ‘decisive outlook for carbon-neutral power generation and the decarbonisation of industry’.
The project demonstrates that hydrogen can be used as a flexible energy storage medium, and that it’s also possible to convert an existing gas-fired power turbine to operate using renewable hydrogen. Thus it is a significant driver for accelerating the decarbonisation of the most energy-intensive industries. In 2022, an initial series of tests enabled the industrial gas turbine to operate with a 30 % hydrogen content, mixed with natural gas. Now the power-to-hydrogen-to-power demonstrator has proven that state-of-the-art turbines with dry low emissions technology can be fuelled with up to 100% hydrogen as well as with natural gas and any blends in between.
The Hyflexpower consortium includes Siemens Energy, ENGIE via its subsidiary ENGIE Solutions, Centrax, Arttic, the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), and four European universities. Building on the promise of the Hyflexpower demonstrator, it is planned to expand the consortium to include additional members. The goal is now to extend the
demonstrator’s operation to industrial heat production and additional operational modes. It is also planned to explore ways of scaling up and commercialising decarbonised electricity generation.
Funding and support
Hyflexpower has received substantial funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.
As the consortium lead, Siemens Energy supplied the electrolyser for hydrogen production and developed the hydrogen gas turbine. ENGIE built the hydrogen production, storage and supply for the demonstrator. Centrax was responsible for the package upgrade to ensure safe operation with
hydrogen fuel. The German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and the Universities of Lund (Sweden), Duisburg-Essen (Germany), and University College London (UK) contributed to the hydrogen turbine technology development. Arttic supported the operational project management, while NTUA in Athens (Greece) carried out economic, environmental, and social analysis of the concept.
“The knowledge and experience gained from the Hyflexpower project … will help us to continue develop our entire gas turbine fleet for a hydrogen-based future. The interaction between electrolysis, storage, and hydrogen conversion at one site has been impressively demonstrated, and now it’s a matter of scaling the results,” says Karim Amin, member of the Executive Board of Siemens Energy.
Global production continues downward trend
Worldwide Electricity production The latest IEA Monthly Electricity Statistics report, which includes July 2023 data, shows that combined total electricity production of all OECD members amounted to 980.6 TWh in July 2023, marginally down by 0.9% compared to July 2022.
Electricity production from fossil fuels totalled 523.0 TWh in July 2023, down by 4.3% or 23.5 TWh compared to July 2022. This decrease was mainly driven by a sharp decline in electricity output from coal (-12.6% y-o-y), while natural gas remained relatively unchanged compared to previous year’s levels (+0.2% y-o-y). Although lower electricity generation from coal was registered in all OECD regions, the most significant drop was observed in OECD Europe (-30.2% y-o-y). Overall, the share of fossil fuels in the OECD
electricity mix settled at 53.3%, approximately two percentage points lower than in July 2022.
Total electricity production from renewable sources grew by 2.2% y-o-y reaching 304.8 TWh in July 2023, with solar power confirming its strong momentum (+15.8% y-o-y), followed by wind power (+6.0% y-o-y). These two renewable technologies offset reduced output from hydropower (-4.8% y-o-y), mainly due to significantly lower hydropower generation in the OECD Americas (-13.9% y-o-y). Renewables accounted for 31.1% of total OECD electricity production, up by one percentage point compared to July 2022. Nuclear electricity production totalled 150.1 TWh in July 2023, marking a 5.6% increase, 7.8 TWh, year-on-year, with higher generation figures being reported in all OECD
6 | October 2023 |
www.modernpowersystems.com
regions. The share of nuclear power in the OECD electricity mix settled at 15.3%, one percentage point higher than in July 2022. The main exception to the general trend was China, where total net electricity production was high at 855.6 TWh in July 2023, up by 5.2%, equivalent to 42.3 TWh, compared to the same month last year. This increase was mainly attributed to the country’s suffering a severe heatwave, which drove electricity consumption to record high levels. The additional electricity generation was almost entirely provided by fossil fuels (+7.9% y-o-y or 40.6 TWh), largely driven by coal. Renewables, on the other hand, remained stable (+0.2% y-o-y), as strong wind (+34.5% y-o-y) and solar power (+22.8% y-o-y) compensated for significantly lower hydropower generation (-17.2% y-o-y).
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