CenterPoint Energy testing green hydrogen at Minneapolis plant

Minnesota’s largest natural gas utility has launched a pilot project to produce “green” hydrogen and explore how the zero-carbon energy resource performs as a substitute for conventional natural gas. CenterPoint Energy launched the pilot earlier this year at its plant near downtown Minneapolis and says the operation will save about 1,200 tons of carbon emissions annually. This is only the CO2 equivalent of removing 260 typical cars off the road a year, hardly an amount that’s going to prevent a 1.5-2C rise in global temperatures. What’s more, every minute the process uses two gallons of water – a resource that is going to become increasingly precious as the impacts of climate change are felt.Ross Corson, a spokesperson for CenterPoint, concedes too that the production of green hydrogen is several times more costly than natural gas.But the small-scale pilot project now underway…

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