Utah Hosts 1GW Storage Mega-Mix

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) and Magnum Development are collaborating on what will result in a 1GW energy storage project in Utah, in the US.

The Advanced Clean Energy Storage (ACES) initiative, announced by the companies with state governor Gary Herbert, will deploy four utility-scale technologies – renewable hydrogen, compressed air energy storage, large-scale flow batteries and solid oxide fuel cells.

MHPS has developed gas turbine technology that enables a mixture of renewable hydrogen and natural gas to produce power with even lower carbon emissions.

The MHPS technology roadmap aims to use 100% renewable hydrogen as a fuel source, which will allow gas turbines to produce electricity with zero carbon emissions.

Magnum Development, which owns five salt caverns used for liquid fuels storage, is also developing compressed air energy storage and renewable hydrogen storage technology.

Company chief executive Craig Broussard said: “Magnum has the below-ground technologies necessary to store energy at utility scale, while MHPS has the above-ground technologies such as hydrogen-fired gas turbines to supply electricity at grid scale.

“With the ACES initiative, we will dramatically accelerate the vision of a western renewable energy hub that we launched over a decade ago.”

Strategically located adjacent to the Intermountain Power Project, Magnum’s site is positioned to integrate with the western US power grid, using existing infrastructure.

MHPS Americas chief executive Paul Browning added: “The technologies we are deploying will store electricity on time scales from seconds to seasons of the year.

“For example, when we add gas turbines powered with renewable hydrogen to a hydrogen storage salt-dome, we have a solution that stores and generates electricity with zero carbon emissions.”