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Y. Mizuno et al.
43.1 Introduction
Hydrogen is seen as a hopeful energy carrier to realize the low-carbon society. It
produces only water when it is used in boilers, fuel cells, gas turbines, and so force.
It can be produced from various feedstocks and methodology, especially, water electrolysis with renewable electricity. This means hydrogen can contribute to supply
low-carbon energy source locally and storing uncontrollable renewable electricity.
“Power to Gas (PtoG)” (European Powertogas 2019) is an important concept
about renewable hydrogen proposed by Germany. Here, “Power” means renewable
electricity and “Gas” means hydrogen and hydrocarbon gases. The objective of Power
to Gas is to balancing electricity supply and demand and to distribute renewable
energy in gaseous form without building new electricity grid to the wider region
in the country and sectors, such as transport and industry. Under the Power to Gas
concept, unutilized renewable electricity generated by wind turbines in the north
shore of Germany is transformed into hydrogen and distributed to the south via
existing natural gas pipeline network.
There are many demonstration projects about producing hydrogen from renewable energy (Gahleitner 2013). In Japan, mainly New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) is funding several Japanese Power to
Gas demonstration projects. Many techno-economic feasibility studies about them
are also conducted (Walker et al. 2016; Kopp et al. 2017; Simonis and Newborough
2017; Gotz et al. 2016). For Japan, Shibata (2016) discussed the feasibility of Power
to Gas in Japan from the multiple viewpoints.
The existing capacity and potential of renewable energies and local problems
are different from area to area. In order to increase domestic renewable energy and
hydrogen in Japan, proposing and evaluating Japanese Power to Gas concepts on
each area’s boundary conditions is important.
43.2 Objective and Approach
In this paper, the authors propose a Japanese Power to Gas concept and conduct
techno-economic feasibility study about it. The authors take the following two
approaches to meet the objective:
1. Proposing the concept by not just copying German concept, but by considering
Japanese situation, such as existing energy infrastructure.
2. In the feasibility study, in order to apply the concept and evaluation method to
other similar area, using open data and method.
Y. Mizuno et al.
43.1 Introduction
Hydrogen is seen as a hopeful energy carrier to realize the low-carbon society. It
produces only water when it is used in boilers, fuel cells, gas turbines, and so force.
It can be produced from various feedstocks and methodology, especially, water electrolysis with renewable electricity. This means hydrogen can contribute to supply
low-carbon energy source locally and storing uncontrollable renewable electricity.
“Power to Gas (PtoG)” (European Powertogas 2019) is an important concept
about renewable hydrogen proposed by Germany. Here, “Power” means renewable
electricity and “Gas” means hydrogen and hydrocarbon gases. The objective of Power
to Gas is to balancing electricity supply and demand and to distribute renewable
energy in gaseous form without building new electricity grid to the wider region
in the country and sectors, such as transport and industry. Under the Power to Gas
concept, unutilized renewable electricity generated by wind turbines in the north
shore of Germany is transformed into hydrogen and distributed to the south via
existing natural gas pipeline network.
There are many demonstration projects about producing hydrogen from renewable energy (Gahleitner 2013). In Japan, mainly New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) is funding several Japanese Power to
Gas demonstration projects. Many techno-economic feasibility studies about them
are also conducted (Walker et al. 2016; Kopp et al. 2017; Simonis and Newborough
2017; Gotz et al. 2016). For Japan, Shibata (2016) discussed the feasibility of Power
to Gas in Japan from the multiple viewpoints.
The existing capacity and potential of renewable energies and local problems
are different from area to area. In order to increase domestic renewable energy and
hydrogen in Japan, proposing and evaluating Japanese Power to Gas concepts on
each area’s boundary conditions is important.
43.2 Objective and Approach
In this paper, the authors propose a Japanese Power to Gas concept and conduct
techno-economic feasibility study about it. The authors take the following two
approaches to meet the objective:
1. Proposing the concept by not just copying German concept, but by considering
Japanese situation, such as existing energy infrastructure.
2. In the feasibility study, in order to apply the concept and evaluation method to
other similar area, using open data and method.