INGRID Project

29 March 2017

Energy storage is becoming a crucial issue to balance and integrate larger shares of renewable energy and improve the grid reliability and efficiency. Hydrogen storage represents a viable option to increase the carbon-neutral energy supply due to its high energy density and reversibility. The INGRID R&D European project aims at demonstrateing how and to what exent the most advanced ITCs for real time monitoring of smart distribution networks and the storage of solid hydrogen solutions,will enable the integration of renewable sources in the balance of energy supply and demand. The project is developed by a consortium composed by eight partners from four countries (Italy, France, Belgium and Spain): Engineering Ingegneria Informatica (Lead Partner); McPhy Energy; Hydrogenics; Tecnalia; RSE – Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico; E-Distribuzione; ARTI – Apulia Regional Agency for Technology and Innovation; Studio tecnico BFP. Within the INGRID project, 39MWh demonstrator pilot plant of solid hydrogen storage has been built in Troia, near Foggia The demonstrator consists of a 1.2MW water electrolyzer, a solid hydrogen storage system, a fuel cell and ICT systems for real time monitoring and control. Using solar and wind energy, hydrogen produced by electrolysis in gas form is absorbed by magnesium discs, which form stable compounds with hydrogen called magnesium hydride and enable it to be kept in solid form. Therefore, the hydrogen can be transported safely and made available to industrial users or be extracted from the magnesium discs and used as zero emission fuel to support electric mobility. Moreover, through the fuel cell, the hydrogen stored in magnesium discs can be also re-converted into electricity and re-directed into the grid when needed.