Ammonia Fuel Network — Great Presentation on Energy Storage and Transmission

The Ammonia Fuel Network’s Executive Direct John Holbrook was good enough to send me a few DVD’s in which Bill Leighty made presentations on the numbers that surround ammonia a fuel. I was struck by a number of things.

First, Bill is a consummate presenter to an academic audience. He’s measured, rational, and extremely credible – without a hint of bombast – or really any effort to use emotion to convince the audience of anything at all. Even in a subject matter in which the entire survival of our species is at stake, Bill just plows though the material as if he were discussing Hannibal and the Punic Wars. This dispassionate approach carries into the choices he makes to frame the discussion of the imperative to move to renewables. “We only have 200 years of coal left,” he says, choosing an indisputable but fairly unexciting fact. It was as if, if we only had more coal, everything would be just fine. I would have been up there waving my arms and talking about Chernobyl, skyrocketing cancer rates, global climate change, and empowering terrorists. I could almost Bill thinking: I could do that too. But why?

Second, I realize that I’ve been a bit glib about energy storage and transmission. Although there is very little discussion here about concentrated solar power and molten salt energy storage, there is considerable exposition on the cost of electricity transmission – which is considerable. I began to realize how challenging all this HVDC grid build out really is, given the costs, the NIMBY (not in my backyard) effect, and the consequent political and legal difficulties.

An elegant solution here would be one that addressed several different problems in one. And I challenge anyone to review these presentations and not be impressed with the elegance with which liquid ammonia offers a reasonably low-cost answer to the challenges we will ultimately face as the penetration of renewables grows larger and the issue of firming (delivered reliable power, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year) becomes more thorny. We have about 20 GW of wind installed in the US today, representing about 2% of our total capacity. And already the wind industry to running out of places to plug its power into the grid. Without a solution to store and transport that energy, the renewables industry will quickly hit a wall – and ammonia just may be the answer.

If you’re interested in the presentations, please let me know.