Solar energy offers enormous opportunities to decrease carbon footprint and emissions. One such thing for which solar parks can be used is generating Green Hydrogen. Read this blog to know more.
The world is moving towards ways of low-cost and eco-friendly fuel that can help in reducing carbon footprint and emissions. As we all know how pollution is impacting our environment and creating ecological imbalances, we need to find new ways of generating and utilizing energy.
One such concept which can help in meeting these needs is Green Hydrogen which is generated through solar energy. To help you understand it better, This blog throws light on the essentials of green hydrogen and will talk about how solar parks can help in supercharging green hydrogen.
Solar Parks are an innovative source of generating abundant solar energy through solar panels spread in large areas over hundreds of kilometers. It gives amazing opportunities in terms of using solar energy to convert water into hydrogen gas without using any fossil.
Hydrogen is the most usable and abundant source in the atmosphere that can be utilized in varied ways. Generating hydrogen also requires energy and currently, it is generated through fossil fuels which rely mostly on coal. In terms of talking about how it works, green energy such as windmills or solar parks is used to convert water using electrolyzer to hydrogen which can be stored and utilized as a gas. It can then be used as an environmentally friendly element that releases zero emissions.
Since solar energy is readily available and renewable, and it is also abundant on Earth, the most effective and healthy way to manufacture green hydrogen on a wide scale is by a photocatalytic splitting of water under the influence of sunshine. For instance, the amount of solar energy that enters Earth in an hour is more than enough to satisfy the world's energy needs for a full year. Also, the process of photocatalysis powered by solar radiation is an economical and highly efficient method to produce green hydrogen.
Conjugate polymers are used in solar photocatalysis to create hydrogen without emitting carbon dioxide. Additionally, the creation of a hydrogen fuel cell using this hydrogen produces no greenhouse emissions. Thus, by employing this technology, hydrogen can be produced in a nearly pure and environmentally friendly manner.
Moreover, green hydrogen has great potential since it may greatly lessen our reliance on fossil fuels and reduce the world's carbon footprint. By adopting green hydrogen, sectors including shipping, petroleum refining, transportation, and aerospace that presently generate a lot of pollution because of conventional fuels can become almost pollution-free.
Hydrogen has a variety of potential uses, including:
● Electric vehicles powered by fuel cells and hydrogen
● Cargo ships that run on hydrogen-based liquid ammonia
● Refineries producing "green steel" heat their facilities using hydrogen rather than coal.
● Electricity-generating turbines fuelled by hydrogen that may produce power during peak
● Demand to replace natural gas used for residential heating and cooking with electricity to support the grid.
Concentrated Solar Power technology is available in a variety of forms, such as towers, dishes, and linear mirrors. They absorb and concentrate sunlight to create steam, which can then be employed to fuel steam turbines and afterwards cool, condense, and recycle the steam to be reused.
There are numerous benefits to concentrated solar energy. The most important benefit is that heated liquid can be stored in the system and later used to create electric power even though the sun doesn't shine. The grid stays steady throughout the night, even during days of cloudy weather or other inclement weather and strengthens it by keeping the curves of production steady. This kind of storage is essential to address concerns regarding grid resilience and reliability. There are benefits compared to PV as well. The size of concentrated solar power is what allows the reduction of carbon emissions in large-scale, difficult-to-reach industries.
Conclusion
In order to achieve the goal of having net zero emissions by 2050, energy efficiency to expedite decarbonization, use of renewable energy for electricity, the rapid expansion of renewable energy production which will further reduce the already low cost of renewable electricity, replacing gray hydrogen with green hydrogen to replace carbon-based hydrogen, would increase scale, lower the cost of electrolysis, and make green hydrogen competitive and ready for further scaling up in the 2030s.
