GKN Hydrogen, Technology & Investment Solutions LLC and Circle Green, Inc. announce the operation of a microgrid project utilizing GKN Hydrogen’s metal hydride hydrogen storage.
– The microgrid is located at Circle Green Technical Park near Adelanto at the former Meadowbrook Dairy within an unincorporated portion of San Bernardino County.
– The project will validate and demonstrate the dynamic operation of GKN Hydrogen’s HY2MEDI energy storage system (ESS) integrated within the Circle Green Technical Park and supporting the renewable energy technology development at the site.
– The HY2Medi will replace a propane generator and provide carbon-free resiliency, paired with a solar installation, and long duration backup power in an off-grid application.
– The California Energy Commission provided $1.77 million in funding to deploy GKN Hydrogen’s HY2MEDI energy storage system (ESS), which utilizes innovative metal hydride hydrogen storage to store excess solar electricity and make it available to support the renewable microgrid.
– The renewable technology development activities at Circle Green Technical Park include a biogas to hydrogen reforming project under development by the University of Southern California.
The California Energy Commission (CEC), Technology & Investment Solutions LLC (TIS) and GKN Hydrogen today announced that GKN Hydrogen’s HY2MEDI energy storage system (ESS) is operational and has been integrated into the Circle Green Technical Park near Adelanto at the former Meadowbrook Dairy.
GKN Hydrogen’s HY2MEDI energy storage system utilizes metal hydride hydrogen storage to displace a propane generator and using off grid solar electricity will power the site to support the renewable energy technology development activities. The installation will receive $1.77 million dollars of funding from The California Energy Commission’s Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program that invests in scientific and technological research to accelerate the transformation of the electricity sector to meet the state’s energy and climate goals.
The performance of the HY2MEDI installation will be evaluated over a range of environmental and operational conditions at the high desert site near dry lakebed Lake El Mirage. The HY2MEDI operates autonomously to control the microgrid, stores available solar electricity and delivers electricity as needed to support the technology development activities at the Technical Park.
“This project brings together a renewable microgrid at a site that is being repurposed, a regional project and biogas technology developer and a clean energy technology developer to implement solutions that can help decarbonize the power grid” said Janice Lin, the Founder and President of the Green Hydrogen Coalition. “This California Energy Commission (CEC) funded project demonstrates the technologies that will enable microgrids to operate autonomously, be used to balance the future electricity grid, and help decarbonize our economy”.
“This HY2MEDI project helps us demonstrate the potential in repurposing the former Meadowbrook Dairy as a renewable technology development site” said Kevin Sutton, CEO and owner of Circle Green, Inc., the project developer of a new composting and green fuel production facility. “The Circle Green Technical Park will help develop and demonstrate the technologies that will enable microgrids to operate autonomously, be used to balance the future electricity grid, and help decarbonize our economy”.
Paul Cook, First District Supervisor, San Bernardino Country stated “The HY2MEDI energy storage system will allow the storage and on-demand delivery of clean energy, regardless of the weather or time of day. I’m proud to see San Bernardino County businesses continue to lead the way in producing and storing clean renewable energy”.
Moh Ibrahim, Developer at Technology & Investment Solutions LLC (TIS) said, “We are honored to be the recipient of a CEC EPIC Award for this project to validate and demonstrate an energy storage system (ESS) using metal hydride hydrogen storage. This project will demonstrate the containerized HY2MEDI energy storage system can autonomously control microgrids and store available solar electricity to deliver electricity when needed and upon demand to support the renewable technology development at this site.”
This Mojave Desert location provides us the opportunity to validate the performance of GKN Hydrogen’s HY2MEDI energy storage system when exposed to environmental extremes including hot summer temperatures. The fully containerized and easy to deploy HY2MEDI demonstrates its flexibility to generate and store hydrogen for long duration energy storage applications and helps to buffer energy from intermittent renewables, such as solar, to enable microgrids to operate reliable and resiliently while utilizing renewable electricity. Gottfried Rier, Chief Technology Officer at GKN Hydrogen.
