Hydrogen and the “Hy” Arctic

George Roe, Director, DOE Arctic Energy Office

Due to the difficult conditions in the Arctic, northerners are innovative by necessity, developing new ways to address the challenges they face – sometimes new devices and often developing techniques to tailor and adapt existing and emerging technologies from elsewhere.  For example, Alaska was the scene for several hydrogen efforts early in 2000. Near Fairbanks, surplus geothermally-generated electricity was used to generate hydrogen for mixing with propane to provide cooking gas and heat for drying.  And, on the small island of St Paul, located in the middle of the Bering Sea, a study of alternative transportation options included hydrogen generated from surplus wind turbine output to energize shuttle vehicles with fuel cell engines.

Outside, as well as inside, the north, there’s been discussion of whether hydrogen could possibly be used to increase the efficiency and decrease the emissions from diesel-fueled reciprocating engines.  System concepts are emerging where electrolyzers can be used as dispatchable loads, generating and storing hydrogen that can then be used with fuel cells or all-hydrogen turbines as a complementary power source within multi-resource microgrids.   Advanced hydrogen-to-heat systems are evolving.  Norway and other nations are deeply engaged in the demonstration and refinement of hydrogen-fueled seagoing vessels.  And there are many more applications in-work.

October 8th is National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day in the United States.  The Department of Energy’s H2@Scale initiative and many other endeavors managed by the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office are engaging research and development organizations across the Department, industry, and universities to address challenges associated with hydrogen’s inclusion in the all-of-the-above diversity of energy options that our nation, and our world, needs.  Their efforts range from how to best mature this technology consistent with economic considerations to workforce development and safety provisions.

I hope you’ll join me in considering how the Arctic can partner with the rest of the globe in the evolution and evaluation of this important energy resource. Learning from the experience of those before us, participating in broadly inclusive dialogue, bringing to bear the north’s outstanding skills in adapting and hardening technology, and collaborating in the fielding of systems that are truly resilient can bring forward new long term energy solutions for a region facing radically changing, and often unpredictable, conditions.