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0 pointssoperj5y ago0 comments

they aren't. They're investing in something that creates power whenever there is wind, and hydrogen whenever there's excess power.

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barney545y ago· 2 in thread

How often is there excess power? To be economic there will likely be purpose built to run on wind whenever the wind blows, not just when the wind blows AND there is excess power. The capital cost of electrolyzers is substantial and will need to run a lot to pencil out.

tremon5y ago

It happens quite a lot, actually. Search the net for negative power prices and you'll understand the mechanics (for example, [1]).

So if a supplier can use that excess power to generate another product which can be sold, that's a win-win for them: they won't have to pay the penalty for oversupplying the grid, and they can sell the generated hydrogen for additional profit.

[1] https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/why-power-prices-...

reitzensteinm5y ago

"The number of hours with negative power prices in Germany increased by around 50 percent to 146 hours in 2017, which translates into 1.6 percent of total time"

So if you're only going to run it when power costs are negative, you're amortizing the capital costs over running the plant for the equivalent of six days a year in 2017 Germany.

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