Project One
From dream-green.org Wiki
Dream Green Project One
Set up a hydrogen processing plant at South Point to make hydrogen using windmill(s) as the source of the renewable energy. Store this hydrogen to either sell or make electricity that will be put in the Helco power grid. This project should be a prototype of a massive hydrogen plant at South Point that could make enough hydrogen for the entire Hawaiian Islands.
A grant needs to be sought to begin the hydrogen prototype plant or investors sought to achieve this initial goal. After the hydrogen prototype plant produces hydrogen and is shown to be viable then more funding will be sought to build a bigger plant.
Project One will accomplish an understanding of what is involved in setting up a hydrogen plant that is totally green without a carbon print as a prototype. Hydrogen could be made using other renewable energy sources besides wind, such as geothermal or hydroelectric. Much will be learned in building and reaching the goal of Project One.
The key feature of Project One is using windmills to produce hydrogen from electricity. The hydrogen is stored to be used when the wind abates to produce electricity for the Helco power grid. The windmills are in place at Southpoint to be used for this prototype hydrogen generation plant and an electric generation plant using hydrogen as the fuel produced by the windmill. If additional windmills are needed for this project additional funding will be needed. Otherwise, the windmills in place at Southpoint will produce the electricity needed to produce the hydrogen.
According to the Hawaii Hydrogen Power Park, "Kahua Ranch located on the Big Island has excellent wind and solar resources and is being used to test wind-to-hydrogen and solar-to-hydrogen Power Park hydrogen generation systems. This site is home to a small village renewable energy power system that was installed by the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research (PICHTR). The objective of the PICHTR project was developing and testing the use of wind and solar power to power small villages as found in many parts of the Pacific. In the original configuration, the energy from wind turbines and photovoltaic arrays was stored in a large industrial battery. The battery then supplied AC power via a converter to power lights and electrical appliances at the ranch.
In the Kahua Power Park demonstration we are using the electricity generated by the wind turbine and solar array to power an electrolyzer and make hydrogen. The hydrogen is stored without further compression at low pressure (approximately 175 psi) in a large propane tank. When electricity is needed the hydrogen is supplied to a fuel cell to produce electrical power. The hydrogen can also be used to fuel an internal combustion engine which would power an electric generator."
The South Point of the Big Island could also demonstrate that a wind farm could produce hydrogen, especially at night, when demand for electricity going into the HELCO grid is low.
