The search for clean energy sources in the United States has long since ceased to be a trend; it is now a necessity. Several states are already racing against time to find viable, effective, and low-cost solutions, but what no one imagined was that the future of the country (in terms of energy) would be buried beneath a small city that stored 300,000 liters of hydrogen in a huge underground tank.
The small town that could hold the key to America’s energy crisis
Imagine that you live in a small town that attracts certain tourists because of its wines and relaxation areas. Until, in recent years, it has been attracting attention for a completely different reason: its frequent and intense forest fires. In just 3 years (between 2017 and 2020), you have seen your vegetation turn to ashes, and all the residents forced to evacuate their homes several times.
Well, this is the scenario that Calistoga, a city located at the northern end of Napa Valley, in California, has been facing. And the worst part is that when these moments of crisis occur, sometimes the only way to maintain the power supply is through diesel generators brought by PG&E; that is, residents have to deal with noisy, polluting, and temporary machines invading their city.
Until seeing this unsustainable situation, the city government, together with the company Energy Vault, replaced all the diesel generators with an innovative solution that combines lithium-ion batteries with cells fueled by liquid hydrogen. Unlike the previous situation, this system occupies an area with sports fields, a park, and a community garden, managing to supply the entire city for up to 48 hours without any pollutant emissions.
The hydrogen stock that impacted the entire country
In addition to being an impressive project of great importance to the city, it has become relevant to the rest of the United States, mainly because of what it means. Using this new system, Calistoga has stored hydrogen in a huge underground tank with 300 thousand liters – yes, it is a single tank.
What they are doing is testing, in practice, a solution that can be replicated in military bases, data centers, hospitals, and even large cities. This is because hydrogen works like a chemical battery (yet another invention: a hydrogen monster being tested in America), because it can be stored for long periods and converted into electricity with low loss, without relying on the sun or wind. For Lisa Gift, a resident who also serves on the Calistoga City Council:
“Continuing to rely on fossil fuels was simply not sustainable. That’s what excited me. It’s a clean, reliable energy solution that ensures the security and resilience of our community.”
The project that will serve the entire country
In addition to this project attracting a lot of attention due to the amount of hydrogen that is being stored, we cannot fail to highlight the progress it represents for our future when we think about climate change. How so? Let us explain: this entire structure was designed to work in extreme situations, which in this specific situation are preventive power outages during fire alerts in the city. With just one command, the batteries go into action immediately, keeping schools, hospitals, and businesses operating normally.
What we mean by all this is: the project goes beyond ensuring the comfort of a small city, because it proves to be a replicable model for the future. Now, instead of reacting to disasters with palliative solutions, we can prepare in advance, investing in modern and sustainable infrastructure, and the protagonist of all this seems to be hydrogen, since the USA made a historic investment of US$ 888 million to produce it.
