Potential Benefits Of Power-To-Gas Energy Storage

AirUCI faculty Jack Brouwer, associate director of AirUCI's partner institute APEP, announced that their research on power-to-gas technology potentially holds the ability to dramatically increase the use of intermittent renewable energy.  In partnership with Southern California Gas Company, APEP has demonstrated that the UC Irvine campus microgrid could increase the portion of renewable energy it uses from 3.5% to 35% by implementing a power-to-gas strategy. 
 
"With power-to-gas technology, you don’t need to stop renewable power generation when demand is low. Instead, the excess electricity can be used to make hydrogen that can be integrated into existing natural gas pipeline infrastructure and stored for later use," says Jack.  “This research clearly shows that power-to-gas technology can increase the use of renewable energy and should be an important component in meeting California’s clean energy and greenhouse-gas reduction goals,” says Jeff Reed, director of business strategy and advanced technology at SoCalGas.
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