Located at NREL’s Flatirons Campus in Colorado, the project is using GKN’s solid-state storage technology to evaluate the technology’s performance and integration with systems such as microgrids and fuel cells.
Katherine Hurst, NREL’s head investigator for the project, said, “This project will be the world’s largest hydrogen storage system connected to renewable energy, and the findings could be integral to advancing the interoperability of hydrogen technologies and renewable energies at scale.”
Aimed at uncovering the “most beneficial” use cases for the technology, the project will store up to 500kg of hydrogen by binding molecules in the GKN metal hydride at low pressures.
Supported by $1.7m from the DOE, as well as $400,000 from Californian utility SoCalGas, the project is scheduled to run until December 2026.
“Our storage systems promise significant potential benefits in the areas of safety, footprint and operational and maintenance costs,” said Jim Pertrecky, Chief Commercial Officer at GKN Hydrogen.
“Evaluating commercial use cases will be key to identifying deployment strategies as the hydrogen economy continues to scale up and production costs continue to fall.”
