Image: Siemens

Within Florida Power & Light’s (FPL) recently-filed four-year rate request with the Florida Public Service Commission is a commitment to “investments to build a more sustainable energy future.”

The pledge in the regulatory filing includes the utility’s “30-by-30” plan to install 30 million solar panels in Florida by 2030, as well as plans to build what the utility said would be the world’s largest integrated solar-powered battery and a green hydrogen pilot project.

The battery system is the Manatee Energy Storage Center, a 409 MW behemoth that could begin serving customers in late 2021. FPL’s Gulf Power unit said on Feb. 25 that it had begun construction on the project. The project is expected to help speed the retirement of aging natural gas units at a nearby power plant.

The green hydrogen pilot project was first announced by NextEra Energy, FPL’s parent company, in July 2020.

NextEra plans to invest $65 million into the pilot, which will use power from otherwise curtailed solar energy to produce green hydrogen via a 20 MW electrolysis system.

It’s worth noting that NextEra ranks as one of the nation’s largest solar and wind developers. So, although a 20 MW pilot may not initially move the needle toot much, NextEra’s vast wind and solar also comes with a lot of curtailed renewable generation. If the pilot proves successful and scalable, the company could look toward a serious buildout of more hydrogen producing facilities that could replace fossil fuels.

For now, the green hydrogen produced as part of the pilot would replace some of the natural gas combusted at FPL’s 1.75 GW Okeechobee power plant. Rather than build a new hydrogen plant, FPL is retrofitting an existing plant to accommodate the fuel source.

This article originally appeared on pv-magazine-usa.com, and has been republished with permission by pv magazine (www.pv-magazine.com and www.pv-magazine-usa.com).

The "Choose Renewable Hydrogen" initiative, led by the employers Solar Power Europe and WindEurope and currently formed by Akuo Energy, BayWa re, EDP, Enel, Iberdrola, MHI Vestas, Solar Power Europe, Ørsted, Vestas and Wind Europe, remitted this Monday a letter to the vice-president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans asking the European Commission to bet on the "most efficient, sustainable and profitable" ways to decarbonise the economy.

Among the correct decisions for the next integration of Europe's energy system, the importance of green hydrogen stands out, which will play "a key role as the most profitable and sustainable solution for total decarbonisation".

In that sense, direct electrification is pointed out to be the main means to decarbonize heating and road transport, but there are other difficult sectors to eliminate, such as heavy industry, long-distance road transport, aviation and transport. maritime, where direct electrification is insufficient. Here, renewable hydrogen will play a key role as the most cost-effective and sustainable solution for complete decarbonization.

Clean hydrogen has been one of the topics highlighted in the EU's ecological recovery plans, which will be announced this Wednesday: according to the draft published by the portal specialized in European affairs EurActiv, there will be 1.3 billion for R + D + i and another 10 billion co-financing in the next decade , to minimize the risk of large projects, as well as a “commitment” to reach 1 million tons of this gas.

For its part, Iberdrola announced in mid-March that it will build one of the largest green hydrogen plants in Europe in Puertollano , with an investment of 150 million euros.

This article originally appeared on pv-magazine.es and has been republished with permission by pv magazine (www.pv-magazine.com and www.pv-magazine.es).