Dec. 16, 2006 - 21:13 MST

WHAT'S THE HITCH ?

Sounds too good to be true, and they tell me that when it sounds that way, it probably is too good to be true. There is an article in yesterday's The Rocky Mountain News by Gorgi Chakrabarty of that paper. This article was above the one I wrote about yesterday. Quoted in part here:

IT'S A WIND-WIND TECHNOLOGY DEAL

Xcel teams with lab to produce hydrogen in $2 million project

"Wind2H2"

"The name of the project symbolizes a $2 million partnership between Xcel Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to use wind energy to produce hydrogen, or H2."

"The stored hydrogen could be used in fuel cell or gas turbines to generate electricity at a modest cost, especially during peak demand hours when the price of electicity in the open market shoots up."

"Xcel Chairman, CEO and President Dick Kelly and NREL Director Dan Arvizu kicked off the project Thursday at the federal lab's wind center between Golden and Boulder (Colorado)."

"Today we begin using our cleanest source of electricty -- wind power -- to create the perfect fuel: hydrogen," Kelly said at the ground breaking ceremony in the National Wind Technology Center. "Converting wind energy to hydrogen means that it doesn't matter when the wind blows since its energy can be stored on-site in the form of hydrogen."

"Xcel plans to invest more than $1.25 million in the partnership. NREL and the Department of Energy will invest about $750,000."

"The plan is to research technologies to use wind power to extract hydrogen from water and store the hydrogen in special containers. The gas subsequently can be used to make various products, including electricity and transportation fuel."

"The research site boasts a new building with electrolyzers, or machines that extract hydrogen from water using wind power, a device to compress the hydrogen for storage, four large tanks to store the hydrogen and a control room where computers monitor the process."

"Currently, the cheapest way to derive hydrogen is from hydrocarbons, mostly natural gas. But the process emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere."

"Using wind energy to electrolyze water and derive hydrogen is clean and there are no emission problems, but the process is about four times as much as commercially available hydrogen."

"NREL scientists are seeking to reduce the cost."

Kelly said he thought of the project two years ago, just as Xcel was ramping up its wind power generation. The utility is the largest retail provider of wind power in the nation."

"If the project is successful, Kelly said, wind-generated hydrogen could be used to power shopping malls or other venues, or even used to fuel fleets of vehicles in coming years."

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In a way this is an answer to transmission line scarcity, mentioned yesterday. Also in this article was mentioned that the present cost of producing hydrogen is four times more expensive that commercial hydrogen now on the market -- but it didn't emphasize that the commercial hydrogen production entails the release of greenhouse gasses. Also, thinking about it, natural gas is a finite commodity, as are gasoline and diesel fuel along with coal.

Although it would take a whole lot of changing things, wouldn't it be super if gasoline could become a thing of the past, using petroleum products for oiling and lubricating machinery only, and hydrogen be the preferred fuel for all engines.

Of course paranoid me 'has the wonder ,' how long will it take the biggies in the petroleum industry to throw a monkey wrench in the machinery one way or another ? Or how long before they grab on and monopolize the production of hydrogen and jack the price up ?

But it is a meritorious endeavor by the researchers and sounds as if it is truly a feat of scientific magic. Much better than blowing corn liquor through our exhaust pipes, the production of which uses up much energy that cannot be renewed.

Perhaps the NREL can figure out solar cells to work on windless days.

But like all things of today that sound so fine, makes me wonder WHAT'S THE HITCH ? . . . . . . . . . .

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