LOS
ANGELES, Nov. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/
-- Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) and GKN Hydrogen
today announced the commissioning of a research demonstration
project with the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on an innovative clean renewable
hydrogen storage solution. The project, which will be located at
NREL's Flatirons Campus in Arvada,
Colo., uses GKN Hydrogen's storage technology to store
hydrogen in a solid state (metal hydrides) compared to traditional
gaseous storage tanks. The demonstration aims to evaluate the
technology's performance and integration with clean energy systems,
such as microgrids or fuel cells. The project also aims to identify
the most beneficial uses of solid-state storage of clean renewable
hydrogen. At scale, this technology could help accelerate the
transition to a net-zero emissions economy by increasing the
availability of resilient, on-site renewable power generation and
storage.
"This demonstration project highlights how surplus renewable
energy can be used to create and store clean renewable hydrogen to
help sustainably meet our country's growing energy demands," said
Jawaad Malik, chief strategy and
sustainability officer at SoCalGas. "Continued advances in long
duration storage technologies could play a crucial role in
supporting on-site clean energy systems and offer an additional
path to help accelerate the decarbonization of hard to electrify
industries."
The demonstration project will use renewable energy sources like
solar and wind to convert water into clean renewable hydrogen
through an electrolyzer. Up to 500 kilograms of hydrogen can be
stored in GKN Hydrogen's storage system in a solid state by binding
the molecules in a metal hydride at low pressure without the need
for compression. The hydrogen can then be used in an on-site fuel
cell to create zero-emissions electricity.
"We believe that hydrogen has the potential to revolutionize the
energy sector, and our solutions are designed to make this
transition as seamless as possible," said Jim Petrecky, chief operating officer at GKN
Hydrogen. "Our storage systems promise significant potential
benefits in the areas of safety, footprint, and operational and
maintenance costs. Evaluating commercial use cases will be key to
identifying deployment strategies as the hydrogen economy continues
to scale up and production costs continue to fall."
Utilizing NREL's Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems
(ARIES) platform, researchers aim to validate a variety of
commercial and industrial decarbonization applications. The exact
use case depends on the system's integration, which could include
solar, electrolyzers, battery storage and fuel cells with
distribution equipment.
"The ARIES platform and infrastructure in Colorado aims to help accelerate the
deployment of innovative energy technologies related to renewable
energy, storage solutions and interactive loads. By integrating GKN
Hydrogen's storage solution and collaborating with major utilities
like SoCalGas, we are developing solutions to tackle the
complexities of modern energy systems," said Katherine Hurst, NREL's principal investigator
for the project. "This project will be the world's largest hydrogen
storage system connected to renewable energy, and the findings
could be integral to advancing the interoperability of hydrogen
technologies and renewable energies at scale."
The U.S. Department of Energy's Hydrogen and Fuel Cell
Technologies Office provided $1.7
million in funding to NREL to deploy GKN Hydrogen's
innovative hydrogen storage subsystem. SoCalGas provided
$400,000 of research, development and
demonstration funding to the project and will help identify
potential commercial use cases. The project is scheduled to run
until December 2026.
Click to learn more about SoCalGas' Research Development and
Demonstration program, GKN Hydrogen's storage
solution and NREL's ARIES program.
About SoCalGas
SoCalGas is the largest gas distribution utility in the United States serving approximately 21
million consumers across approximately 24,000 square miles of
Central and Southern California.
SoCalGas' mission is to build the cleanest, safest, and most
innovative energy infrastructure company in America. SoCalGas aims
to deliver affordable, reliable, and increasingly renewable gas
service through its pipelines to help advance California's clean energy transition by
supporting energy system reliability and resiliency and enabling
the integration of renewable resources. SoCalGas is a recognized
leader in its industry and community, as demonstrated by being
named one of Reuters' Top 100 Innovators Leading the Global Energy
Transition and Corporate Member of the Year by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. SoCalGas is a
subsidiary of Sempra (NYSE: SRE), a leading North American energy
infrastructure company. For more information, visit
SoCalGas.com/newsroom or connect with SoCalGas on social media
@SoCalGas.
About GKN Hydrogen
GKN Hydrogen produces solid state hydrogen storage systems,
based on metal hydrides, and integrated energy storage solutions
leveraging this technology. They focus on applications where
simple configurations and maximum safety are paramount to value and
where byproduct heat enhances the commercial offering by
simplifying the site, eliminating compression, and optimizing
efficiency. GKN Hydrogen is wholly owned subsidiary of the
multi-disciplined global UK engineering and industrial group,
Langley Holdings plc and is part of Langley Holdings' Power
Solutions division.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions about the
future, involve risks and uncertainties, and are not guarantees.
Future results may differ materially from those expressed or
implied in any forward-looking statement. These forward-looking
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In this press release, forward-looking statements can be
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Factors, among others, that could cause actual results and
events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any
forward-looking statement include: decisions, audits,
investigations, inquiries, regulations, denials or revocations of
permits, consents, approvals or other authorizations, renewals of
franchises, and other actions, including the failure to honor
contracts and commitments, by the (i) California Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC), U.S. Department of Energy, U.S.
Internal Revenue Service and other regulatory bodies and (ii) U.S.
and states, counties, cities and other jurisdictions therein where
we do business; the success of business development efforts and
construction projects, including risks related to (i) completing
construction projects or other transactions on schedule and budget,
(ii) realizing anticipated benefits from any of these efforts if
completed, (iii) obtaining third-party consents and approvals and
(iv) third parties honoring their contracts and commitments;
macroeconomic trends or other factors that could change our capital
expenditure plans and their potential impact on rate base or other
growth; litigation, arbitration and other proceedings, and changes
(i) to laws and regulations, including those related to tax and
trade policy and (ii) due to the results of elections;
cybersecurity threats, including by state and state-sponsored
actors, of ransomware or other attacks on our systems or the
systems of third parties with which we conduct business, including
the energy grid or other energy infrastructure; the availability,
uses, sufficiency, and cost of capital resources and our ability to
borrow money on favorable terms and meet our obligations, including
due to (i) actions by credit rating agencies to downgrade our
credit ratings or place those ratings on negative outlook, (ii)
instability in the capital markets, or (iii) fluctuating interest
rates and inflation; the impact on affordability of our customer
rates and our cost of capital and on our ability to pass through
higher costs to customers due to (i) volatility in inflation,
interest rates and commodity prices and (ii) the cost of meeting
the demand for lower carbon and reliable energy in California; the impact of climate policies,
laws, rules, regulations, trends and required disclosures,
including actions to reduce or eliminate reliance on natural gas,
increased uncertainty in the political or regulatory environment
for California natural gas
distribution companies, the risk of nonrecovery for stranded
assets, and uncertainty related to emerging technologies; weather,
natural disasters, pandemics, accidents, equipment failures,
explosions, terrorism, information system outages or other events,
such as work stoppages, that disrupt our operations, damage our
facilities or systems, cause the release of harmful materials or
fires or subject us to liability for damages, fines and penalties,
some of which may not be recoverable through regulatory mechanisms
or insurance or may impact our ability to obtain satisfactory
levels of affordable insurance; the availability of natural gas and
natural gas storage capacity, including disruptions caused by
failures in the pipeline system or limitations on the injection and
withdrawal of natural gas from storage facilities; and other
uncertainties, some of which are difficult to predict and beyond
our control.
These risks and uncertainties are further discussed in the
reports that the company has filed with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These reports are
available through the EDGAR system free-of-charge on
the SEC's website, www.sec.gov, and on Sempra's
website, www.sempra.com. Investors should not rely unduly on
any forward-looking statements.
Sempra Infrastructure, Sempra Infrastructure Partners, Sempra
Texas, Sempra Texas Utilities, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC
(Oncor) and Infraestructura Energética Nova, S.A.P.I. de
C.V. (IEnova) are not the same companies as
the California utilities, San Diego Gas & Electric
Company or Southern California Gas Company, and Sempra
Infrastructure, Sempra Infrastructure Partners, Sempra Texas,
Sempra Texas Utilities, Oncor and IEnova are not regulated by the
CPUC.
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SOURCE Southern California Gas Company