Duke Energy’s DeBary Hydrogen Project, a project led by Duke Energy, GE Vernova, and Sargent and Lundy, could begin demonstrating commercial peaking capabilities of an integrated hydrogen power-to-power system at Duke Energy’s Florida power plant in late 2024. The project is set to be the first in the nation and among the world’s first power plants to produce and use renewable hydrogen to power a gas turbine for peaking power applications. The system will use excess solar generation and low demand times to split water, using two 1-MW proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers from Plug Power that produce about 36 kilograms of hydrogen per hour. The hydrogen will then be stored onsite in tanks capable of holding 2,500 kg of compressed hydrogen. GE will upgrade one of DeBaries’ four 83-MW GE 7E gas turbines to combust up to 100% hydrogen (by volume) to cater to peak demand, making it GE’s first commercial demonstration of an E-class machine running at 100%. The project aims to show that existing gas turbine can be retrofitted to go up to100% hydrogen.
Solar Dominates US Energy Capacity Growth
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has published data showing that solar accounted for over 75% of US electrical generating
