Nedstack, Providence to Co-Develop Hydrogen Based Soln to offer Affordable Solar Power

With an aim to offer affordable solar power around the clock, Sydney based innovation firm Providence Asset Group (Providence) and fuel cell manufacturer Nedstack have entered into a strategic partnership agreement to co-develop and deliver hydrogen-based power-to-power solutions for the Australian and Pacific region solar market.

Both companies are also looking for the potential to introduce the solution to the European market in the future.

Commenting on the partnership, Arnoud van de Bree, CEO of Nedstack, said that “the only way we can power this society on renewables is if we solve the timing issues between supply and demand. To make that happen we need to store energy and we need to renew renewables.”

Thus, the two companies planned to enhance solar farms by integrating advanced energy storage equipment and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled asset management systems designed to store the surplus power generated and discharged when required.

This is significant as the current battery options are expensive and are only economically viable for short-term storage.

So, a patented hydrogen storage solution will come from Providence’s subsidiary H2Store. It will consist of vessels that are cost-effective, safe, non-toxic. Also, they can easily be recycled and transportable, making them significantly more sustainable than a Li-ion solution.

On the other hand, Nedstack will supply a 600 kW rated power PemGen fuel cell power system and will support Providence in the design, development and deployment of the total power-to-power system on a minimum viable product demonstrator.

Speaking on the development, Henry Sun, CEO of Providence Asset Group, said “the vision for Providence is to build world-class projects, developing innovative and technological-based solutions to drive sustainable advances in production, transportation, consumption and utilisation of power.”

The company said that the 600 kW demonstration project will be installed at the Providence 102 MW AC Yarranlea solar energy plant in Queensland, Australia and is scheduled to go-live by the end of 2020.

Meanwhile, the two firms have identified the further large-scale opportunity to develop a multi-MW power-to-power installation on Australian based renewable assets held by Providence by 2023.