New Energies, new possibilities

f you are interested in energy and climate news, you’ve probably noticed a significant uptick in headlines featuring hydrogen as a potential replacement for fossil fuels. Lately, I’m seeing many new reports and headlines that point to hydrogen’s potential for revolutionizing many industries, through applications like fuel cell vehicles, precious metals refining, synthetic fuels and even shipyard construction.

But what many of these stories miss—and what a new study from the Energy Options Network (EON) shows—is how nuclear energy might be the best way to make green hydrogen without carbon emissions. This is just another reason nuclear energy is important for any climate solution.

If hydrogen can be produced without carbon emissions, it can play an important role in decarbonizing much of the economy including the transportation and industrial sectors. For that reason, it enjoys near-universal support.

In fact, recent interest in hydrogen has skyrocketed.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced $64 million of funding to demonstrate large-scale hydrogen production, storage and distribution through its H2@Scale program. The European Union highlighted the importance of hydrogen as a pathway to a carbon-neutral Europe by laying out an investment agenda to scale up hydrogen production with renewable energy and launching the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance to support these investments. Additionally, Axios reports that of the $54 billion in approved funding for clean energy around the world, 19 percent is for hydrogen.

“I have rarely seen, if ever, any technology that enjoys so much political backing around the world. Countries who have completely different views on energy and climate all join in saying that hydrogen is a key clean energy technology,” said International Energy Agency director Fatih Birol.

As hydrogen production has grown in popularity, so has the term “green hydrogen,” which refers to using renewable sources to produce hydrogen. This mirrors mandates and pledges we see to drive down emissions in our energy sector through wind, solar and other carbon-free technologies.

But what is discounted most often is the role that nuclear energy should have in this exciting new market. According to EON’s study, nuclear can also serve as the cheapest carbon-free source for hydrogen fuel and be economically competitive with natural gas—which is the leading method for making hydrogen currently—if used on a large scale.

“An inherent advantage over technologies that only produce electricity (like wind and [photovoltaic solar]) is nuclear’s capacity to produce both electricity and heat, affording it the ability to take advantage of all hydrogen production technology options,” the study states.

Today’s hydrogen market already exceeds $100 billion and is expected to grow significantly. This market represents an opportunity for current and new nuclear plants alike. Nuclear plants currently operating could continue to produce carbon-free power. And new reactors could attract investment by having customers and a market already lined up.

"In my view, hydrogen is today where solar was 10 years ago,” said Birol.

According to EON’s study, meeting the energy demands of the maritime transportation industry by 2050 from nuclear power alone “would require as much as 650 gigawatts of advanced nuclear reactors” for hydrogen production.

The 650 gigawatts needed for this portion of the transportation sector alone is more than six times the capacity of all nuclear plants in the United States, so in other words it’s big. Wind and solar will play a major role in providing hydrogen too, but that’s still a huge opportunity for the nuclear industry.

  Today, we are in search of solutions to drive down carbon emissions. Already, nuclear energy comprises nearly 55 percent of the carbon-free energy in the United States and is viewed as a key part of any viable climate solution. The potential for a nuclear and hydrogen partnership is a natural fit and worthy of future investments.

Using all available carbon-free sources, including nuclear, for hydrogen production will be game-changing. Carbon-free hydrogen powered by nuclear energy can reduce carbon emissions even more, protecting our climate while fueling the future transportation and industrial sectors.   

https://www.nei.org/news/2020/why-hydrogen-great-partner-nuclear-energy-planet