Duke Energy is planning to introduce a demonstration project to create clean energy using an end-to-end system to produce, store, and combust 100% green hydrogen at the DeBary plant in Volusia County, Florida.
The partnership between Duke Energy, Sargent and Lundy, and GE Vernova has led to the development of the system.
The system will commence operations with the existing 74.5 MW DeBary solar plant providing clean energy for two 1 MW electrolyzer units to separate water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen atoms.
The oxygen will be released into the atmosphere, while the green hydrogen will be delivered to nearby, reinforced containers for safe storage.
The system will deliver the stored green hydrogen to a combustion turbine to be upgraded using GE Vernova technology to run on a natural gas/hydrogen blend or up to 100% hydrogen during peak energy demand periods.
While construction of the demonstration project will start by the end of 2023 and is expected to be completed within a year, it will be installed and fully functional in 2024.
The system offers safe, quiet generation and storage of energy, optimizes on-site solar generation, and allows access to on-demand (dispatchable) energy and end-to-end technology demonstration to provide cost-effective decarbonization.
The environmental features delivered by the system include no visual impact, zero greenhouse gas emissions, and the production of 100% green hydrogen from solar energy.
“Duke Energy anticipates hydrogen could play a major role in our clean energy future,” said Regis Repko, senior vice president of generation and transmission strategy for Duke Energy. “Hydrogen has significant potential for decarbonization across all sectors of the U.S. economy and is capable of long-duration storage, which would help Duke Energy ensure grid reliability as we continue adding more renewable energy sources to our system.”
