Storelectric’s Green Hydrogen Patent for its invention, a Hybrid CAES (Compressed Air Energy Storage) / Hydrogen Energy Storage System has been granted in the United Kingdom.
What does this give them? We estimate it gives them control of 50% of the green hydrogen market in the United Kingdom. The US, EU, China and Canada are patent pending, with other patents due for submission for ROR.
The patent does not in any way cover Grey or Black Hydrogen, but this hydrogen is produced using fossil fuels and thus produces emissions. Presently most of the global market for Hydrogen is grey or black hydrogen, but in order to move back down to 350 Parts of CO2 per million parts of air, and stabilise the climate crisis, obviously this needs to change.
We believe the patent is a gamechanger for Storelectric, but if you have been developing utility scale energy storage systems since 2013, your naturally going to get a start against the competition, and preparations for the patent started in 2015, after all.
3 Reasons Why Its Going To Be a Hydrogen World
Hydrogen is roughly 3 times as energy dense as Gasoline in gaseous form at room temperature. But unlike gasoline (a liquid), you can compress it. Storelectric plans to compress it to between 17 and 280 BAR (dependent on the structure of underground salt cavern / cavern). Your car tyres would typically be pressured to between 2.5 and 3 BAR. As a point of interest, Hydrogen Cars typically use hydrogen compressed to 700 BAR.
Hydrogen can be produced by the electrolysis of water. When Superheating the water to 550 degrees, the production of hydrogen from electrolysis becomes extremely efficient, sometimes approaching 100%. Storelectric plans to use waste heat from industrial processes, excess renewable energy or its CAES systems to achieve these temperatures.
The uses of hydrogen for energy generation are endless. Storelectric plans to utilise hydrogen to fire turbines and spin generators dispatching huge amounts of power to the grid when the grid needs it focusing on medium, long and seasonal durations.
You can access 350 PPM’s Research on Hydrogen from 2019 free of charge here.
Electricity Prices and The Financial Mechanics of Energy Storage
As an example: On a dark windy night, electricity prices are often negative. In the UK, we have recorded minus £45 per MWh before. When the Beast from the East hit, electricity prices topped £3,000 per MWh.
At the moment, natural seasonal changes in energy prices are being compensated for by fossil fuel energy generation. Meaning every winter, in the UK, gas and coal fired generation fires up. As we move past 40% Renewable Energy generation, and seek net zero emissions this will increasingly stop happening and in absence of utility scale energy storage, we will be left with hugely volatile energy prices and supply. This has the potential to cause chaos, at least for consumers that cannot hedge pricing.
If you can take in excess energy from the grid when prices are low or negative, or access waste heat from industrial processes or CAES systems both of which are effectively free, create hydrogen, compress and store it, and then utilise it to generate emissions free power and dispatch it to the grid when prices are high, you have a massive battery, and maybe, less some costs, a license to print money. Its utility scale energy arbitrage and the arbitrage opportunity is getting larger as we move away from fossil fuels.
You can access 350 PPM’s Research on Grid Scale Energy Storage from 2017 free of charge here.
You can access a copy of the patent here, but in short, the scope of the patent is very significant covering most methods of producing, storing and utilising green hydrogen as an energy storage medium utilizing compressed gases.
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