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Originally Posted by Brokinarrow
Good info  I remember that electrolysis was very energy intensive, wondering if the use of solar power to produce the required electricity would keep costs low (while obviously not being very efficient)? Guess it would depend how expensive the solar cells are and such... |
Solar electricity is generally a bad idea. It doesn't scale up all that well.
Powering a calculator? Thats fine. Keeping a boat battery charged? Not a problem. Powering your house? If you have to, but 999 times out of 1000 there are better choices. Actually, that may be too generous to solar cells, but you get the idea. Powering a hydrogen gas production facility? I suppose its better than putting people on generator-bikes ... but not by much.
The other problem is that there isn't any benefit to co-locating a solar cell power plant and a hydrogen electrolysis plant. Same goes for hydro-electric and wind. A heat based solar plant, where you convert light into heat, then heat into electricity would fit better with a gasification plant, but typically, they don't generate much of an excess of energy. They use all they can for power generation.
Co-locating a fossil fuel power plant would work for the gasification method of hydrogen production, since gasification requires a fossil fuel source. And they also generate steam and heat, which are needed for gasification. Unfortunately, they also produce CO2, which is the main thing we want to avoid by using hydrogen in cars instead of gasoline. Thats also why nuclear is so attractive for hydrogen production. They could produce all the heat and steam you'd want for gasification, but with no emissions of their own.
Also, another problem with using solar to generate hydrogen is that the plant could only run during the day, which is also when electricity demands are the highest. But coal or nuclear could run 24/7, and possibly power some electrolysis machines at night when electrical demand is low, in addition to the gasification process.