Large Power Transport from Renewable Sources using Liquid Hydrogen and Superconductors Technologies

Large scale Renewable Energy Sources (RES) exploitation has been indicated as one of the leading ways in order to drastically reduce fossil fuels consumption and develop a sustainable energy system within the 21st century. Often, suitable areas for RES power plants are remotely located, hence efficient large power transmission systems are needed for energy transport to-wards consumption sites. Moreover, apart from hydroelectric power, RES power is characterized by fluctuating and poorly predictable availability. When a significant part of total power generation is produced by fluctuating sources, storage systems are required in order to match end-users requirements and guarantee grid stability. Hydrogen, produced by water electrolysis, is today the most promising and studied mean of storage and transmission vector of renewable energy in chemical form. Usually, large hydrogen transport is considered to be feasible whether in gaseous form (GH2) through pipeline, or in liquid form (LH2) through truck cryotanks. This paper presents the design of a combined MgB2-superconducting/LH2-cryogenic pipeline. The line is designed for the concurrent transport of multi-GW electric power and liquid hydrogen up to 7 kg/s. Two scenarios are proposed for the application of the system. First, it is shown that the line could transport the electric power produced by the “Three Gorges” hydroelectric plant, replacing the several planned traditional lines with higher efficiency and lower environmental impact. Second, an hypothetical very large solar plant located in the Chinese Gobi desert is considered.