California utility to test hydrogen to cut emissions
San Diego Gas & Electric said April 19 it was making good on its promise to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 with the development of two hydrogen pilot projects.
The company said the two projects, tapped for service by 2022, will test about a half dozen different end-use scenarios for hydrogen. Among other things, one test facility would examine how hydrogen can play a role in grid reliability, while another would demonstrate blending hydrogen with natural gas for use as a fuel for an electric generator.
Caroline Winn, the CEO of the San Diego utility company, described net-zero ambitions as something of a moonshot that requires a collaborative approach to realise.
“While we'll continue to evolve our efforts to reflect stakeholder feedback, regulatory changes, and technological breakthroughs, I believe we can get there … one project at a time,” she said.
Elsewhere, the company said it planned to bring hydrogen into its vehicle fleet.
San Diego Gas & Electric (SGD&E) is a division of Sempra Energy. Another state subsidiary, Southern California Gas (SoCalGas), outlined plans March 23 to achieve net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases from its operations by 2045.
Through the use of renewable natural gas, hydrogen as a power source and other clean-energy initiatives, the company estimates that it already avoids more than 3.2mn mt/yr of CO2-equivalent emissions, or about the same as removing more than 700,000 passenger vehicles from the road each year.