Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) revealed on Monday (May 2) that it will be launching a feasibility study to blend hydrogen and natural gas in a stand-alone transmission pipeline system in the US.
PG&E claims the ‘Hydrogen to Infinity’ project will be the country’s ‘most comprehensive end to end study and demonstration facility’ will aim to examine the future potential of hydrogen as a renewable energy source.
This could serve the entire global natural gas industry as well as PG&E and its customers.
A dedicated 130-acre facility adjacent to Northern California Power Agency’s (NCPA) Lodi Energy Centre power plant, will allow PG&E and its partners (NCPA, Siemens Energy, the City of Lodi, GDH Inc., and University of California at Riverside) to study the injection, storage and combustion of hydrogen blends in a range of end uses.
Hydrogen to Infinity will utilise a hydrogen-natural gas blend for electric generation in the Siemens Energy 5000F4 Gas Turbine.
The areas of focus within the study include:
Technical, operational, and safety needs
Market development
Energy resiliency and flexibility
Commercial and government partnerships
Unprecedented functional test environment for ongoing research
Training environment for new technology.
Janisse Quiñones, Gas Engineering Senior Vice-President at PG&E, said, “This demonstration facility is truly an exciting advancement of our goal to diversify our natural gas system for our customers and consider hydrogen’s role as part of California’s decarbonised future.
“As we advance PG&E’s climate commitments and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from fossil fuels, our feasibility studies of hydrogen are an essential part of our growth and evolution as a natural gas utility.
“This new facility will provide critical research, close information gaps, and unlock opportunities not only for PG&E, but for the entire global network of natural gas pipeline operators.”
North American Hydrogen Summit
H2 View is taking its events platform to America’s original clean hydrogen hub of California. Together with the California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP), we will stage our North American Hydrogen Summit in San Francisco on July 14-15.
As our summit theme Building Bridges: Hydrogen hubs and investment suggests, the event will explore the $8bn of funding announced to create at least four regional hydrogen hubs in the US. These hubs will turbo-charge the nation’s progress toward heavy trucking and industrial sectors that run without producing carbon pollution – and they may just provide the path forward to a hydrogen-fuelled future.
With California and Texas vying to be America’s hydrogen capital today, where are the hubs of tomorrow? Further still, what can other states, and countries, learn from California’s success story? And how can we build bridges to a successful flow of international investment?
If you are a member of the CaFCP, be sure to grab your ticket at a discounted rate with a code that can be provided to you by the events team.
Full information about this event including attendance and sponsorship packages can be found here.