Comments on: New Mexico Building Hydrogen Power Plant

By: ian

ian — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 17:48:58 +0000

8D is another location of a hydrogen fuel station.

By: admin

admin — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 15:05:46 +0000

Right now the only hydrogen fueling station is a private station on private land at:

Angel’s Nest Hydrogen Fueling Station
Taos, NM

By: Don Shapiro

Don Shapiro — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 22:01:48 +0000

Hello,
My wife and I are seriously (desperately) wanting to buy a hydrogen powered car. We live in Cedar Crest and work in Albuquerque. What is the Bottom Line: Is there a place nearby where we can fill up at this time?

Thanks
Don & Rita
September 2010

By: nrgarizona

nrgarizona — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:04:59 +0000

Yes, both of the points you bring up are valid but where does that lead us. Let’s look at the elephant in the living room. The utilities are comfortable with using a gas fuel to create steam to run a turbine and supply power through transmission lines and they desperately want to hold on to that — the rate payer dependent on them and under their thumb, paying whatever the utility can convince some PUC they need to prevent blackouts.

Many of the other alternative uses of hydrogen lend themselves to distributed or dispersed power generation, the last thing a utility wants. It just won’t happen until: (1) fuel cells and the PV panels to generate the electricity become so cheap that the “free market” kicks in and undercuts the utilities (won’t happen for decades); (2) We start thinking outside the box and use new cheaper hydrogen-generation technology in our personal lives. I’m not holding my breath.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:50:50 +0000

Yes, I agree about using hydrogen to solve the intermittancy issue and this is why I am confused when I read several articles about hydrogen being the main source of energy and not a secondary or backup source.

Yes, again I agree that the turbine could be cheaper and more well-known technology if other plants are already doing the same with natural gas. I also suspect that life expectancy of the fuel cell isn’t where it needs to be yet compared to turbines.

I’ll keep following this story to see if I can dig up any more answers as time goes by since this renewable energy power plant could be a good model for other plants across the U. S.

By: Kevin B

Kevin B — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:08:05 +0000

Just to guess at some of the answers….

H2 provides a solution to the intermittancy of renewables (wind blows at night while power demand is during the day, solar is nice except when it’s cloudy, etc…). A utility will pay more for a reliable power source. The h2 fueled source can be thought of as an alternative (probably a cheaper alternative) to other energy storage devices (batteries, pumped hydro).

As to the turbine vs. fuel cell, one can only guess that the the turbine is cheaper/more efficient than the fuel cell. Maybe a cost of ownership (fuel cell stack needs to be rebuilt after X years) thing.

Again, all guesses.