The Energy Show: Fuel Cells Are Making a Comeback

The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon

Energy storage is critical to our ability to eliminate the use of fossil fuels. Basically, we need a way to store the abundance of daytime solar and use this energy at night. Although lithium ion batteries have been getting most of the attention, fuel cells provide another way to convert fuels into electricity.

A fuel cell is an electro-chemical cell that converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through a reaction of hydrogen or another hydrocarbon fuel, such as gasoline or natural gas, with oxygen. The history of fuel cells goes back over a hundred years — in fact, their first commercial use came from NASA to power orbital space craft. Fuel cells are different than batteries because a battery produces energy from a chemical reaction that is already in the battery, whereas a fuel cell requires a continuous source of fuel and oxygen to sustain the chemical reaction. The great thing about fuel cell technology is they can continue to supply energy for as long as fuel and oxygen are supplied.

However, fuel cells can either be clean and renewable power sources — or just as polluting as fossil fuels — depending on their fuel source. Currently, most fuel cells use hydrogen as their fuel. Although the chemical reaction of hydrogen with atmospheric oxygen is emission-free (the only byproduct is water), the source of the hydrogen is problematic. Almost 100% of the hydrogen gas used for fuel cells and industrial processes comes from reforming natural gas. As a result, just as much CO2 is produced when hydrogen is used as a fuel, as if the natural gas were to be combusted directly. Nevertheless, future processes in which ordinary water is electrolyzed into its components hydrogen and oxygen can indeed produce hydrogen perfectly cleanly — as long as solar or wind are used to power the process.

More and more fuel cells are finding their way into the conventional power and transportation industries. Bloom Energy is successfully selling their natural gas-powered fuel cells to customers that need a reliable source of backup power. And Toyota has rolled out their Murai hydrogen fuel cell car in areas that have sufficient hydrogen filling stations (most of which are in California). For more about the underlying technology and opportunities for fuel cells, tune in to this week’s Energy Show.

SolarWakeup Podcast: Brad Klein, Senior Attorney, Discusses How We Got The Future Energy Jobs Act Of 2016

By Yann Brandt, Managing Editor

In this episode of the Energy Wakeup podcast, we sat down with Brad Klein, senior attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center. He and the team at ELPC were instrumental in bringing Illinois’ Future Energy Jobs Act of 2016, and Klein takes us behind the scenes to discuss exactly what that process – long and arduous as it sometimes was – looked like.

Whether it was the threatened closure of nuclear plants or the coal industry piping up near the end of the process to get involved, Klein says what ultimately brought about the law was the willingness of the solar industry, in conjunction with community organizations and environmental justice groups, to stick together in the face of overwhelming pressure from well-organized opponents. He says it would have been easy to cut several different deals among the different participants, and the utilities are skilled at making that happen. But no one on the solar side blinked, and that’s why the bill has such a strong solar component to it.

Listen to the whole discussion to hear Klein discuss the details of the negotiations and why, despite some early growing pains and speed bumps along the way, he believes the Future Energy Jobs Act has laid the foundation for a strong, vibrant solar industry in Illinois for years to come.

Trump Takes Credit For Utility Steadfastness On Closing Coal Plants

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Here we are again, discussing the future of coal – this time as it relates to CO2 emissions and the fact that emissions have fallen in the United States. And as usual, President Trump finds himself in the middle trying to take credit.

So here is what’s really happening.

Despite having pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord, a report from the Environmental Protection Agency (as reported by Reuters) suggests that CO2 levels have fallen in the United States by 2.7% in 2017, even more than the 2% it fell in 2016.

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Interim EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler took the opportunity to crow about how the extra 0.7% was the result of the excellent Trump policies on the environment. As he said in a press release:

“Thanks to President Trump’s regulatory reform agenda, the economy is booming, energy production is surging, and we are reducing greenhouse gas emissions from major industrial sources.”

Which is a nice narrative, particularly if you’re hellbent on removing all environmental protections as EPA administrator. But here’s where the story falls apart just a little bit.

As we (and every other solar publication) had reported, U.S. utilities have not slowed down their plans to close coal plants, and they are only accelerating those plans as the years move forward. In part, that’s because they can replace these fossil fuel plants with clean, renewable energy like solar and wind.

As Reuters susses out, that’s the real reason for the additional reductions in greenhouse gases:

While Wheeler gave the administration credit for the reductions, which mainly came from the power sector, the numbers also underscore that the administration has not been able to stop the rapid pace of coal plant shutdowns … Natural gas releases far less carbon dioxide when burned than coal and a domestic abundance of gas has driven a wave of closures of coal plants. In 2017 utilities shut or converted from coal-to-gas nearly 9,000 megawatts (MW) of coal plants.

Now, it’s important to note that an unexpected drop in carbon emissions from the United States is still a good thing, and kudos to the utilities who have already recognized that the age of fossil fuels is rapidly fading.

But it does stick in the craw a little bit when the administration that’s taking credit for it is still running around talking about “beautiful, clean coal” and other pro-coal nonsensical blather. Let’s give credit where credit is due and not where it is not.

(It should also be noted that the Trump administration, for all its crowing, may finally be recognizing the futility of keeping uneconomic coal plants open.)

More:

U.S. greenhouse emissions fell in 2017 as coal plants shut

Could DTE Proposal Kill Rooftop Solar In Michigan? Advocates Say Yes

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Just when you think Michigan is finally getting its solar act together, utilities like DTE Energy hatch plans to destroy rooftop solar in the state, at least according to the advocates that talked to our friends at Inside Climate News.

Becky Standfield, the Midwest director for Vote Solar, isn’t one for hyperbole. She’s one of the most level-headed solar activists I’ve known. So to see her say this to ICC was both startling and arresting:

“It is very clear that DTE is trying to put a dagger in the heart of rooftop solar in Michigan.”

Whoa. And that’s not even the strongest comparison advocates are making.

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A little background on this fight is necessary here. Traditionally, net metering is done at a the retail rate – a one-to-one exchange. But under current Michigan law, there is no set level of compensation set, meaning utilities can pay solar consumers at whatever rate the Public Utilities Commission will allow.

Right now, DTE Energy has a proposal before the PUC that will allow them to compensate solar consumers at the wholesale rate, which would be approximately 75% under retail rate.

How can they justify this highway robbery? Well, it’s the zombie lie of the “cost shift” again raising its ugly head. In case you’re not familiar with this well-worn piece of nonsense (and utilities across the country cling to it like a drowning man to a life preserver), the “cost shift” argument holds that solar customers don’t pay their fair share of grid upkeep. Therefore, the “costs” of their energy self-production are then passed on to non-solar consumers.

And as I’m sick of writing, it’s complete bunk. The cost shift doesn’t happen until a state gets at least 10% of its electricity from solar power (which only occurs in five states now, and Michigan is not one of them). Once the cost shift happens, it’s only fractions of a penny per kilowatt-hour – so even at its worst it’s a marginal cost at best.

A 75% cut in compensation for electricity exports would essentially kill rooftop solar in Michigan, mirroring, says Inside Climate News, the screeching halt a similar proposal in Nevada visited up on that state’s solar industry.

That was so bad that it took two years before the solar industry was even a shell of its former self, and three years later the rooftop solar industry is still recovering.

Michigan should learn from Nevada’s example. It’s PUC should reject DTE Energy’s ridiculous request.

More:

High-Stakes Fight Over Rooftop Solar Spreads to Michigan