Bloom Energy announced on the 19th (local time) that it will install a 240kW electrolyzer at Xcel Energy’s Prairie Island nuclear power plant in Welch, Minnesota, to produce carbon-free hydrogen.
Bloom Energy plans to install a solid oxide water electrolyzer (SOEC) in late 2023 and begin operation in early 2024.
Excel believes that the high heat and steam produced at the 1.1GW Prairie Island nuclear power station will be fed into Bloom’s electrolyzer to produce hydrogen more efficiently than alkaline water electrolysis or PEM operated at low temperatures.
As the low temperature water electrolysis method requires around 40% more electricity to produce hydrogen, the company explains that Bloom’s SOEC water electrolysis facility has an advantage in terms of the cost of hydrogen production.
Bloom Energy has conducted tests with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), a nuclear research and development center in the United States, for a 100kW class SOEC facility using a nuclear power plant. SOEC Bloom Energy found that 37.7 kWh of electricity is used to produce 1 kg of hydrogen.
As the Prairie nuclear plant faces extreme winter weather each year, Excel plans to use Bloom Energy’s technology to support hydrogen production for its durability advantage.
A Bloom Energy official said, “We believe Bloom Energy’s stable and efficient facility will demonstrate how to harness the power of nuclear energy to support hydrogen production under harsh conditions.”
