Wärtsilä Energy Business, which leads the transition to a 100% renewable future, has researched hydrogen as a fuel for two decades. It said it is developing its combustion gas engines to run on 100% hydrogen fuel and has already tested its engines to run on a 60:40 mix of hydrogen and natural gas according to International Mining.
Renewable fuels, such as hydrogen produced using renewable energy sources, can be very useful as backups in a system comprising wind, solar, and battery storage.
“Wärtsilä’s engines, capable of running on a variety of sustainable fuels, are offering a highly dynamic balancing power for these future generating systems,” commented Marco Wiren, President, Wärtsilä Energy Business.
Renewable fuels can be produced using just water, air, and renewable energy. This is possible even in persistent low wind and solar weather conditions. These fuels may be stored in underground gas chambers for use when battery storage is depleting.
Flexible, fast-starting power plants can burn these renewable fuels to augment energy supply.
“The use of renewable fuels in flexible power plants dramatically reduces the required size of battery storage, improves power system efficiency, lowers generating costs, and provides high security of supply even during rare and unusual weather patterns,” Wärtsilä said.
Read the International Mining article HERE.
Image (“Hydrogen as part of the renewable electricity system of the future”) Source: Wärtsilä