The recent Fall Forum of the National Hydrogen Association which convened in Golden offered a detailed discussion of the critical connection between two clean energy industries: hydrogen and renewables.

The link is mutual: the hydrogen industry needs more renewables to produce hydrogen; and the
renewables industry needs hydrogen for storage of excess or off-peak energy to address irregular supplies.

“Hydrogen and renewable technologies are often touted as the ultimate energy pair but one that is far away,” said NHA Executive Vice President Debbi Smith. “While development is still very important, there has been a lot of progress recently with real examples that pragmatically exploit the benefits of each.”

During the NHA’s Forum late last month, which was co-hosted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, several keynote and panel speakers discussed the latest on renewable-hydrogen installations, public policy, infrastructure development, financing, and commercialization strategies.

The opening remarks by Dale Gardner, Director of Renewable
Fuels, Science and Technology at NREL, set the stage for a
wide-ranging discussion on policy topics by connecting all the
renewable energy and hydrogen policy dots using federal
legislation and state laws from progressive energy states like
California, Colorado and Connecticut.

Tim Taylor, CEO of Colorado Public Service Company, spoke on his company’s study showing the viability of hydrogen to store renewable energy. Using hydrogen, the utility can store excess energy generated by wind turbines during the evening, when the wind typically blows hardest but demand is low. Electricity made from hydrogen can then be added to the grid
during times of peak use.

Mike Eckhart, President of the American Council on Renewable
Energy, also made a notable presentation on the role of
financing and how the hydrogen industry should model itself to
fund additional project development. And Dr. Sandy Thomas gave
a well-received sneak peak at the NHA’s soon to be published
transportation analysis which shows the impact that many
alternative vehicle technologies will have on greenhouse gases,
oil consumption and the greening of the grid over the next 100
years.

Panel presentations included such topics as fuel cells that run
on landfill gas and the now famous solar-hydrogen home
developed by Mike Strizki of Renewable Energy International. It
ended with an industry tour and highly interactive discussions
resulting in key points which the NHA Renewable Hydrogen
Working Group will use to develop a renewable hydrogen rollout
plan.

”The information coming out of this meeting has been so open
and honest. I’ve needed a meeting like this for a long time,”
James Blencoe, Hydrogen Discoveries, Inc.

To find out more about the Forum or download the presentations,
go to www.HydrogenForums.org.