By Edmund L. Andrews
A major challenge for producers of electricity from solar panels and wind turbines is akin to capturing lightning in a bottle. Both solar and wind increasingly generate electricity amid little demand, when market prices are too low to cover costs. At noon on sunny days, for example, wholesale power prices in areas with high quantities of solar and wind occasionally fall below zero.
A reversible solid-oxide fuel cell system in Dresden, Germany. (Image credit: Sunfire GmbH)
Some renewable energy producers store their excess electricity as green hydrogen, using the electricity to produce hydrogen from water – labeled “green” because the process emits no carbon dioxide. Used to create fuels, fertilizer, and other chemicals, the global hydrogen market is about $125 billion, and it’s growing briskly in part due to increased interest in hydrogen as a…