Date: 3/22/2021
Author: Kent Moors, Ph.D.
Over the past week or so, while finalizing a major new advance in how my investment services will be making subscribers money (details will be released on Wednesday at 1 pm in a significant “Revolution ’21 briefing), I was busy discussing ongoing developments with global colleagues. One matter coming up again provides advances addressing earlier research of mine on some of the continuing vexing problems in renewable power production.
This continues to revolve about how to store produced energy until it is needed. This, of course, has been the problem inherent in all electricity generation and is usually folded into the heightened conversations concerning developments in new batteries.
The question is broader than that and it remains one of the integral elements in preventing solar and wind from becoming the main sources of power. Not to put it too simply, but how is energy produced to be stored for use efficiently for times when the sun does not shine or the wind does not blow?
Well, a Japanese colleague of mine brought some new twists in a discussion on matters I had addressed a few years ago involving a rather unexpected intermediary.
Hydrogen.
Now, whenever the energy discussion turns to hydrogen, it is almost always regarded as an intriguing, although expensive, alternative energy source. The prospects have been here for some time, with the production process known and the energy output potentially substantial.
The problem has always been the price. While the cost for manufacturing has come down, the capital expenditures required to transport, store, and deliver hydrogen in large volume are simply staggering. After improvements in prototype pipeline models, it is still going to take almost $200 million per mile to move the fuel.
And then there are the serious concerns over safety. Hydrogen can be very dangerous, a matter only too well known ever since the Hindenburg disaster in 1937.
Local generation for local use remains an option but to have any chance of becoming a fuel of choice, wider distribution and availability networks are required. There may be a breakthrough coming, but absent one that serves as a genuine energy shift, the price tag remains too high.
Instead, we just might have a prime example emerging of something else.
As many of you know, I have been arguing for years in favor of taking an energy balance approach. This puts emphasis on widening the number of available energy sources while improving the interchangeability among them.
The objective seeks as seamless an energy fabric as possible, increasing efficiency by allowing for the more efficient usage of multiple energy flows as they are required to meet demand.
An increasing part of this forward-looking equation is likely to be occupied by renewable energy sources, especially solar and wind. As distinct from other approaches, mine does not require a “silver bullet.” We are not dependent upon the development of a new dominant source of energy to wean society from crude oil.
Rather, it is an integration of all energies into a flexible whole that is the goal. The more genuinely distinct sources the better.
However, solar and wind share a common shortcoming with the generation of electricity from other sources. The primary problem remains the elusive ability to store energy for later use.
In turn, that has given rise to a race on the high-volume battery front. The ability to retain energy for use when the grid demands it is the most important single advance still lacking. More important than a resolution to the electric car battery frustration, a revolution in larger capacity storage would have a huge impact on how much energy costs, the ease with which we can use it, and the ultimate ability of a full array or transitions across energy types.
And it is here that hydrogen may provide a decisive key.
As my colleague this week reminds me, Japanese mega corporation Toshiba has been using hydrogen as an encouraging solution to the storage conundrum. Over the past several months, there has been a significant advance in large-scale electricity storage using hydrogen.
He was also kind enough to forward me a private research report issued last month by a Tokyo-based research institute updating the Toshiba work. The report announced the following: “Toshiba has developed a way to use hydrogen to store large quantities of electricity for extended periods of time, with a storage system deploying the technology potentially reaching the market by as early as next year.”
The report continues: “The company will first provide a system capable of storing up to 40,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity — enough to power 10,000 households for eight hours. The system will be made by assembling fuel cells, electrolysis equipment and hydrogen storage tanks on a 600 square meter plot. Hydrogen obtained through electrolysis will be stored in the tanks and reacted as needed with oxygen in the air via the fuel cells to produce electricity.”
OK, so far this looks like another attempt to serialize hydrogen fuel cells. There have been some successes in cell use (especially by the military), but there is much more here, as the report goes on to explain:
“Energy conversion efficiency is a measure of how much energy can be reproduced when the energy is made to change forms. Toshiba’s system has an energy conversion efficiency of 80 percent, exceeding the 70 percent efficiency of pumped-storage hydroelectricity, in which water is pumped to a higher elevation and then released to generate power.”
“The energy storage efficiency of typical storage batteries is thought to be around 80 percent, but massive quantities of electrode materials are necessary to increase capacity. A 40,000kwh storage battery would cost nearly 2 billion yen [$16.8 million]. Such batteries also have problems with long-term storage due to self-discharge.”
“If safety technology to prevent leaks can be secured, the capacity of a system using hydrogen could be increased simply by enlarging the size of the tanks. The total cost including installation and operation would reportedly be reduced by half compared with existing storage batteries.”
That increases the interest – reducing the cost of very large capacity storage options has been essential. But the real difference in this approach arising in its ability to provide solar and wind power with a pricing leverage likely to transform the grid.
The Tokyo report addresses what has been my biggest single concern for years: “To producers of renewable energy such as solar and wind power, the ability to store surplus electricity at low cost would help to cushion the risks from unsold output. The technology is also envisioned for use by local municipalities as an emergency power source during disasters. Toshiba plans to install a small-scale test system capable of storing 350kwh of electricity in the spring of this year [i.e., 2021].”
We may be on the verge of something quite important here.
This is an installment of Classified Intelligence Brief, your guide to what’s really happening behind the headlines… and how to profit from it. Dr. Kent Moors served the United States for 30 years as one of the most highly decorated intelligence operatives alive today (including THREE Presidential commendations).
After moving through the inner circles of royalty, oligarchs, billionaires, and the uber-rich, he discovered some of the most important secrets regarding finance, geo-politics, and business. As a result, he built one of the most impressive rolodexes in the world. His insights and network of contacts took him from a Vietnam veteran to becoming one of the globe’s most sought after consultants, with clients including six of the largest energy companies and the United States government.
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