From now to 2050, global electricity demand is set to double from current levels. At the same time, the world must reduce carbon emissions to make progress towards net zero. If we are to do this, the most pragmatic step we can take is to respond to the demand for power by building new plants while simultaneously decarbonising our existing energy infrastructure.
The decarbonisation process would, of course, entail the introduction of more renewables but also upgrading existing gas turbines to run on a hydrogen/gas blend. This might sound simplistic, but the fact is that hydrogen can be the lynchpin of a decarbonisation strategy that will help the EU alone meet its pledge of reducing GHG emissions by 90% before 2040.
Europe, and many other geographies, are still heavily reliant on natural gas due to its efficiency in power generation. However, there exists today the technology to co-fire hydrogen with gas in gas turbines.
This provides a stable energy transition pathway for power operators and solves the energy trilemma of sustainability, affordability and energy security – not just for the power sector, but also for the most polluting heavy industries such as steel, cement, and aluminum production.
The German market is already making progress. The Power Station Strategy aims to make Germany a climate-neutral industrial country by 2045. The plan, which prioritises the installation of gas-fired power stations to run on hydrogen, will enable German industry to produce steel, cement and other energy-intensive products with zero carbon emissions by 2045.
The new gas-fired power stations will run on natural gas for a transitional period only and are expected to switch from natural gas to green hydrogen between 2035 and 2040.
Reducing emissions in the power sector
Focusing on the power sector is crucial if we are to bring about change. It accounts for 60% of global carbon emissions alone, making it critical that steps are taken to strongly incentivise power operators to transition to low-carbon fuels. In Europe, gas-fired power stations remain a significant source of power. In fact, according to S&P, the region underwent a modest revival in gas-fired power plant development in 2023 in response to record energy price rises after Russia cut gas supplies to Europe.
If we are to maintain energy security, we need to work with the power plants we have for now. So, while gas turbines have their origins in the age of fossil fuels, utilising natural gas, they now have a crucial role to play in transitioning power systems to clean fuels, including hydrogen, for long-term power generation.
We need to focus on what we can achieve straight away. Modern gas turbines have the dual benefit of highly efficient fuel combustion and fuel emissions, with the ability to be fully adapted to use alternative, low-carbon fuels such as hydrogen. Even with small volumes of hydrogen blended in, significant emissions reductions are gained.
In a large power plant, for example – a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) of 700MW – blending hydrogen at 30% delivers the equivalent emissions reduction of removing 40,000 diesel cars from our roads. Blending one of these CCGTs at 100% hydrogen means removing the equivalent of 500,000 diesel cars from our roads.
In many European countries, and the UK, the national grid needs no upgrade to take a 30% blend of hydrogen, further accelerating decarbonisation.
Gas turbines – linking past and future energy generation
The process of adapting the combustor of existing gas turbine infrastructure to blend with hydrogen is minimal. Mitsubishi Power, for example, has succeeded in developing a large-scale hydrogen gas turbine combustor that uses a mix of LNG – the fuel used in gas-fired thermal power – and 30% hydrogen.
It burns hydrogen while allowing suppression of Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions to the level of gas-fired thermal power. The technology is compatible with an output equivalent to 700MW and offers a reduction of about 10% in CO2 emissions compared with gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC).
Enabling a renewables-powered future
There is another important reason why blending gas turbines is so important – it helps to stabilise our grids from the fluctuations and intermittency of renewable energy.
Europe and the UK are moving towards a system wholly reliant on renewables. From January-June 2024, emissions-free sources produced 74% of EU electricity, of which 50% was from renewable sources such as wind and solar, according to the industry association Eurelectric.
The main driver of Europe’s changing energy mix is the rapid installation of renewable energy capacity. The EU constructed 56 GW of new solar power capacity in 2023 – the highest of any year to date – and 16 GW of new wind capacity.
However, the installed capacity from renewable sources does not provide the stability our grid systems need. These systems were built for consistent, reliable, thermal baseloads of power – not ‘wild’ renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.
Given this, the grid-regulating agencies use the efficiency and stability of gas turbine power plants to balance supply and demand. They need to remain in place, but adapted to be suitable for a future, carbon-free world.
As the world prioritises making progress towards meeting climate change goals, stabilisation services must ideally be carbon neutral (or negative). Further, they need to act in the same way as thermal baseload power – controllable, reliable and delivering the fastest response possible to meet the demands of a modern electricity system.
Gas and hydrogen create resilient energy systems
As a plentiful and versatile source of high-density energy that can be produced without generating carbon emissions, hydrogen is well placed to provide grid services such as inertia, reactive power, frequency response and voltage management in a carbon-neutral way.
The potential of hydrogen in the energy value chain is vast. Utilising existing gas infrastructure is a major route to large-scale deployment of hydrogen to deliver emissions reductions in an affordable, accessible and secure way. The technologies to underpin this shift to low-carbon energy systems are already operating.
Hydrogen is a good example of a resilient energy system. As defined by the United Nations, these make an optimal contribution to a country’s social, economic and environmental development, and can withstand and recover quickly from unanticipated shocks while adapting to the impacts of climate change.
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