NEWS: Stanford's nanowire battery holds 10 times the charge of existing ones - Page 2

 
I asked him the same question and got a thousand line response.  The
condensed version as I could gather is that producing hydrogen allows
him to not have to deal with the heavily regulated grid.  Solar can't
provide power on demand the way a coal or gas fired plant can.  Since
the grid needs to have generation matching demand, he claims that
solar power could at best be only 4% of the total generating capacity
of the grid.  By replacing coal fired power plants with hydrogen
burners, he could potentially get a much bigger piece of the market by
supplying solar hydrogen.  He also doesn't like the additional cost
for the inverters he would need to turn his DC in to grid AC.  His
"variable load electrolyzer" can use the juice right from the PV.

 
Solar-->electrons-->h2o2 offers as much on-demand worth of stored
energy as your grid can manage, mostly at minimal CO2 and if need be
without creating NOx.

- Brad Guth

 
These are all valid reasons but ...


So deal with the heavily regulated hydrogen distribution industry?

  Solar can't

That might be the case where peak demand is at night, in winter. But
in the US Southern states, peak demand is in the day, in the summer,
and grids will pay a premium for that electricity.

 By replacing coal fired power plants with hydrogen

In the UK, costs are roughly:
Daytime electricity: 10p / Kwhr
Night time electricy: 3p / kwhr
Natural Gas: 2p / Kwhr

I'm not sure of the efficiency of the reforming process, but you could
probably make hydrogen for about 3p/kwhr from natural gas.

If I have day time electricity, do I:
a: Sell it for between 3p and 10p as electriicty,
b. Convert it into hydrogen, at 60% efficiency. The value of this
electricity is then 2p per KWhr.

  He also doesn't like the additional cost

It would be a lot less than the cost of electrolysers to turn DC into
Hydrogen. Besides which, inverters are off the shelf stuff. Large
scale electrolysers aren't.

If he's worried about storage, hire these guys:
http://www.vrbpower.com/technology/index.html

 
I think you bring up many valid points.  I am not in a position to
argue them, you would have to get Mook to respond directly, if he is
not too busy arguing with Eeyore about whether he has actually "sold"
any solar hydrogen.  It seems like most of the deals he has going at
the moment have to do with creating synthetic hydrocarbons, which may
be the most lucrative approach he can take with his technology at the
moment.

Since most "alternative" energy sources (wind, waves, tidal and solar)
follow mother nature's schedule rather than man's, the issue of
efficient storage of energy becomes crucial for large scale
implementation and powering of the grid.  Pumped storage is one
possibility, but only where the topography allows it.  The VRB ESS
thing looked interesting, i wonder how big it could get in scale.
Creating a fuel such as hydrogen is another possibility for storing
energy, if the losses aren't too great.  Creating a hydrocarbon fuel
creates a readily sold product and eliminates the shortcomings of pure
hydrogen as a fuel.  Of course it does require a source of carbon,
likely non-renewable, which runs counter to the attempt to eliminate
CO2 emissions.

 
guys:http://www.vrbpower.com/technology/index.html

But apparently none of that fluid energy storage can ever be in the
form of h2o2, instead only H2-->LH2 can be accomplished with any of
lord Mook's complex PV farms that'll only have to cover a few million
acres each, and that's only if the land is provided free and
everything involved is also tax free and/or of whatever H2 created is
reverse tax supported (meaning that Mook collects all such state and
federal tax on his energy, but gets to keep such extra loot in
exchange for all his troubles).
- Brad Guth