TWO FARM BILL RESEARCH INITIATIVES PROMISE NEW MARKETS, TRANSMISSION, AND FIRMING STORAGE FOR DIVERSE, LARGE-SCALE RENEWABLES AS HYDROGEN AND AMMONIA William C. Leighty 1 Box 20993, Juneau, AK 99802 USA Phone: 907-586-1426, Fax : 907-586-1424 E-mail: wleighty@earthlink.net ABSTRACT Two research initiatives in the 07 Farm Bill promise new markets, and new transmission and firming storage systems, for diverse, large-scale, stranded renewable energy resources: 1. Renewable Nitrogen Fertilizer: anhydrous ammonia (NH3) for agriculture, vehicle fuel, and distributed generation of CHP. Ammonia would be produced from hydrogen produced from electricity generated by solar, wind, and other renewables, and from atmospheric nitrogen. It can be economically transported as a liquid in common steel pipelines, and stored in large, above-ground steel tanks; this infrastructure already exists. About 30,000 MW of nameplate renewable energy generation would be needed to produce USA’s total present ammonia consumption, 60% of which is imported. The internal combustion engine (ICE) runs on ammonia, at very high efficiency. This research initiative directs the Secretary of Agriculture to convene a task force to plan accelerated commercialization. See Figures 1 and 2. 2. Renewable Hydrogen Transmission Demonstration Facility: begin work on building a pilot plant hydrogen pipeline system, shown in Figures 3-5, which would demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of gathering, transmission, annual-scale firming storage, and delivery and end use of gaseous hydrogen fuel, via pipelines and solution-mined salt caverns. The world’s richest renewable energy resources – of large geographic extent and high intensity – are stranded: far from end-users with no gathering and transmission systems to deliver the energy. The energy output of most renewables varies greatly, at time scales of seconds to seasons: the energy capture assets thus operate at inherently low capacity factor (CF); energy delivery to end-users is not “firm”. New electric transmission systems, or fractions thereof, dedicated to renewables, will suffer the same low CF, and represent substantial stranded capital assets, which increases the cost of delivered renewable-source energy. At gigawatt (GW) scale, renewable-source electricity from diverse sources, worldwide, can be converted to hydrogen and oxygen, via high-pressure-output electrolyzers, with the hydrogen pipelined to load centers (cities, refineries, chemical plants) for use as vehicle fuel, combined-heat-and-power generation on the retail side of the customers’ meters, ammonia production, and petroleum refinery feedstock. The oxygen byproduct may be sold to adjacent dry biomass and / or coal gasification plants. Figures 3-5. New, large, solution-mined salt caverns in the southern Great Plains, and probably elsewhere in the world, can economically store enough energy as compressed gaseous hydrogen (GH2) to “firm” renewables at annual scale, adding great market and strategic value to diverse, stranded, rich, renewable resources. For example, Great Plains, USA, wind energy, if fully harvested and “firmed” and transmitted to markets, could supply the entire energy consumption of USA. If synergistically combined with solar energy, gathered, transmitted, and delivered as hydrogen, about 5 - 10,000 new solution-mined salt caverns would be required, at an incremental capital cost to the generation-transmission system of ~ 5 – 8 per cent. The salt cavern storage industry is also mature; several GH2 storage caverns have been in service for over twenty years; construction and O&M costs are well understood. We report the results of several studies of the technical and economic feasibility of large-scale renewables-to-hydrogen and renewables-to-ammonia systems, discuss how these two new research initiatives might be implemented by the USDA, and how hydrogen energy advocates and industry might be involved. 1 Director, The Leighty Foundation, www.leightyfoundation.org/earth.php