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Clean Patagonian Energy from Wind and Hydrogen |
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By Marcela Valente*
A
small village in the far south of Argentina hopes to free itself
of dependence on fossil fuels by 2008.
BUENOS AIRES - A laboratory situated in the
southern Patagonia region of Argentina is producing hydrogen from
wind energy to supply power to a village and prove that it is possible
to replace polluting fuels derived from petroleum.
At the center of the project in the community of Koluel Kaike, home
to 200 people, is a technology that combines wind and hydrogen energy.
The goal is to achieve the capacity to meet the energy demands of
500 people by 2008 in this town 2,000 km south of Buenos Aires.
''The aim is that the development commission, homes, schools, cars,
farm machinery -- everything in Koluel Kaike, will run on hydrogen,''
engineer Juan Carlos Bolcich, president of the Argentine Hydrogen
Association, which is promoting the project, told Tierramérica.
The hydrogen plant is located 23 km from Koluel Kaike, in Pico Truncado,
Santa Cruz province, and home to 15,000 people, a third of whom
are already supplied by wind-generated electricity, despite the
area's wealth of petroleum and natural gas reserves.
Patagonia has extraordinary potential for wind energy due to its
strong and constant windy climate. With that power, the windmills
of the hydrogen plant produce electricity that feeds an electrolyzer.
Through electrolysis, water molecules are broken down into hydrogen
and oxygen. The procedure permits the storage of hydrogen, already
proven successful as a fuel for engines. The energy can be stored
for use during windless days or for distribution within Argentina
or sold abroad.
''Hydrogen is on its way to replacing petroleum. Fossil fuels contaminate,
they are expensive, but hydrogen is inexhaustible,'' said Bolcich.
The Patagonian energy project is a candidate for inclusion on the
list of what are known as Clean Development Mechanisms under the
Kyoto Protocol on climate change -- energy technologies that do
not emit so-called greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
The ''Wind-Hydrogen'' project is the South American chapter of a
broader program of the International Center for Hydrogen Energy
Technology of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization
(UNIDO).
The international program is under way in small scale projects on
five continents.
China is producing hydrogen from hydraulic sources; in Libya the
effort aims to complete the cycle with solar energy; in Turkey experts
will test using the new fuel in public transportation; and in Oceania
hydrogen is being produced from biomass (organic materials).
Hydrogen is the most basic and most abundant element in nature,
and its combustion is totally clean. The problem is that hydrogen
is not found isolated on its own, but as part of compounds, and
production of hydrogen, through electrolysis, requires expending
energy.
''The debate is centered on the energy utilized to produce it,''
says Juan Carlos Villalonga, an energy expert with the ecological
watchdog organization Greenpeace.
''If hydrogen is co-opted by the producers of nuclear energy or
petroleum, then it will be 'dirty' hydrogen,'' Villalonga told Tierramérica.
But the combination of hydrogen production with wind energy is ideal,
he added.
''Hydrogen has enormous potential because it is easily stored. It
will permit (Argentina's) energy matrix -- which today has only
marginal renewable energy sources -- to make a jump towards relying
solely on those sources,'' he said.
But how much more expensive than fossil fuels will it be to produce
hydrogen from clean energy sources? For the moment it remains a
costly venture, although the rising petroleum prices contribute
to reducing that gap.
Bolcich believes that the rise in the price of crude and looming
depletion of oil reserves are creating a scenario in which wind
energy is increasingly competitive. ''By 2009 the two energy sources
will be competing throughout all of Patagonia,'' he predicts.
But that future requires local effort and international cooperation.
The objective of the Pico Truncado hydrogen plant is to produce
the gas in compliance with all safety regulations, prove that it
can work as energy for electrical equipment, vehicles, and industrial
machinery, and evaluate the costs involved in its widespread use.
Furthermore, the laboratory will work to optimize each stage of
production, experiment with managing the fuel for storage and transport,
and train specialized staff in this technology and its inputs.
The project also seeks to disseminate the use of hydrogen as fuel.
''Petroleum production is very concentrated (in the hands of a few),
but this would be more democratic because hydrogen belongs to everyone,''
says engineer Bolcich.
* Marcela Valente is an IPS correspondent.
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