Wind Energy for Hydrogen Production
Wind energy can be harnessed to provide electricity at some of the lowest costs available for new generation. Coupling wind turbines to hydrogen-generating electrolyzers has the potential to provide low-cost, environmentally friendly distributed generation of hydrogen in addition to electricity. In this way, hydrogen generation can be a pathway for wind generation to contribute directly to reducing the nation's reliance on imported fuels.
DOE researchers are investigating key technical and market issues in an effort to explore this wind and hydrogen synergy, specifically:
- What regions of the United States have the greatest potential for employing wind turbines to produce both electricity and hydrogen, and under what conditions and time frame are they likely to become economical?
- What are the costs of wind systems that produce both electricity and hydrogen, both today and in the future?
- What are the opportunities for reducing system cost, by designing hybrid wind-based systems specifically for production of electricity and hydrogen?
- What areas should research focus on to have the greatest impacts on cost, both in the near- and long-term?
DOE wind researchers are developing a modeling framework to identify promising development areas and better define costs, to provide a systematic summary for the potential for co-producing hydrogen fuel and electricity.