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Denmark's first full-scale hydrogen-energy plant and testing facility, the Lolland Hydrogen Community opened May 2007. It is also the EU's first full-scale Hydrogen Community Demonstration facility for residential Fuel Cell Combined Heat and Power (CHP).
Within the next couple of years the project will install residential micro CHP units in 35 homes in the village of Vestenskov making it the first hydrogen-powered community in Europe.
The island is producing 50% more energy from renewable energy sources that it consumes and the hydrogen project is seeking to locally store excess wind power in the form of hydrogen for use in residential and industrial facilities.
Hydrogen is produced by using excess wind power to split water into oxygen and hydrogen through electrolysis. The oxygen is used in the municipal water treatment plant nearby to speed up the biological process. The hydrogen is stored in low-pressure storage tanks at 6 bars and fuels two PEM Fuel Cell Micro Combined Heat and Power (CHP) stations of 2 kilowatts (kW) and 6.5 kW, respectively.
Within the next couple of years the project will install residential micro CHP units in 35 homes in the village of Vestenskov making it the first hydrogen-powered community in Europe.
The successful production of hydrogen froma renewable energy resource, such as wind, provide great hope for oil-dependent communities such Yakutat, Alaska. Yakutat is an isolated community, much like the island of Lolland, with no road access or nearby grid to sell excess energy. It is situated on the Alaskan coast of the Pacific Ocean which is estimated can produce a great deal of wave energy. A diesel fueled power plant and oil-heated homes here in Yakutat can reap great benefits in the future from Lolland proving that communities can produce, store, and use excess renewable energy in the form of hydrogen.
Yakutat is currently looking for a company that can demonstrate their ocean energy technology here in cooperation with the Yakutat City and Borough and the, federally-recognized, Yakutat Tlingit Tribe.
I look forward to reading about the progress of Lolland's Hydrogen Community in RenewableEnergyAccess.com
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