Page 12 - PEN_Ebook_October2021

Energy ENERGY

1 million tons of hydrogen per year. As shown in Figure 2, NortH2 includes the production of
hydrogen, storage, transportation via pipelines, and distribution.

HYDROGEN COULD BRING SOLUTIONS TO LONG-TERM ENERGY
STORAGE

The NortH2 experiment is also a very good business case to evaluate the potential of using hydrogen
as energy storage, solving a problem faced by many renewable energy farms when having an excess of

electricity that they’re unable to supply to the grid, as happened in Australia and at mega wind farms. Power Semiconductors

Although the conversions of renewable energy to hydrogen using electrolyzers, and hydrogen to Play a Critical Role in
electricity using fuel cells, are not very efficient today, progress has been made and research is
progressing well. As shown in Figure 3, when stored, hydrogen remains available for a very long
period compared with other methods and in very high volumes. Fuel cells can be turned “on” on Efficiently Powering
demand to supply the grid when peaks arise.
Home Appliances

The NortH2 experiment is just one example out of many showing how hydrogen will contribute to

producing carbon-free energy and provide high-capacity energy storage.
By Michael Williams, senior marketing manager of Industrial Power Control at
Infineon Technologies

For More Information

Human’s impact on Earth can’t be denied, and there are global efforts under way to strike a better
balance between the amenities and luxuries we enjoy and reducing the environmental impact. One
▶ Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking
such movement is to improve home-appliance efficiencies through standards such as Energy Star

efficiencies. The United States has historically been behind in enforcing new efficiency standards.
▶ HEAVENN Project
Right now, for example, if you look at the HVAC compressor marketplace prior to these regulations
going into effect, the U.S. was at only 5% of the market being inverterized for the HVAC compressor.
▶ NortH2 Project On the other end of the spectrum, China is almost 100% inverterized already, and Europe is about

65% because they had regulations that made that happen earlier.

22 OCTOBER 2021 | www.powerelectronicsnews.com OCTOBER 2021 | www.powerelectronicsnews.com 23