A consortium of seven partners supported by €13.8 million in financing from the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme for European Research and Innovation are to build a solid state hydrogen storage plant designed to balance power supply and demand of renewable energy installed in the Puglia region of Italy, which employs around 3.5GW of solar, wind and biomass energy resources.
The project, dubbed INGRID was expected to cost a total of €23.9 million, including consortium participation from Italian, ICT technology firm, Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, Agenzia per la tecnologia e l'Innovazione (ARTI, Puglia, Italy), representing the operational arm of Puglia regional authority for the innovation and technology transfer and Enel Distribuzione, Italy's largest utility.
Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis
Photovoltaics International is now included.
- Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
- In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
- Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
- Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
- Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
- Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual
Or continue reading this article for free
Other firms involved in the project include, Belgium-based hydrogen generator supplier, Hydrogenics and French-based McPhy Energy, which is a developer of solid and safe hydrogen storage. Italian research institution, Ricerca sul Sistema and Spanish research centre Energetico TECNALIA are also taking part in the project.
The consortium is said to responsible for the design, build, deployment of the solid-state high-density hydrogen storage systems and electrolysis technology which is said to be capable of handling 39MWh of energy storage capacity.