How to store the energy produced from vast but intermittent renewable resources like wind and solar has long been a major stumbling block in building a “green” energy economy. Now German and Austrian researchers may have found a breakthrough solution (press release in German).
Researchers from the Baden-Württemberg Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research and the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology have developed a process using electric power from renewables to first “crack” water to obtain hydrogen, then convert it to methane through a chemical reaction with carbon dioxide.
The methane can then be fed into the existing natural gas infrastructure, potentially eliminating the need for enormous investment in new facilities for hydrogen or other forms of energy storage.
Solar Fuel Technology of Austria has already completed a small demonstration plant in Stuttgart and is currently building a 10 MW pilot facility scheduled for completion in 2012.