Various hydrogen-storage venues are being tested for a range of uses. In Italy’s INGRID project, an industrial consortium is using magnesium hydrides to store hydrogen to balance grid loads and store production from renewable-energy installations. On the island of Corsica, the MYRTE project (shown at left) is testing the practicality of using sun-generated energy to break water into hydrogen and oxygen and collect both in compression tanks. The European Union is bankrolling the Don Quichote project with €2.86 million to test the design of a system that uses renewable power to make hydrogen and store it for use as a vehicle fuel; companies from six nations, led by Canada’s Hydrogenics, are involved. Meanwhile, commercial ventures such as Hydrexia Ltd. in Australia, ReliOn in Spokane, Washington, and the global corporation Sigma-Aldrich are developing metal hydrides for a range of markets, from industrial users to fuel-cell vehicle owners.
Finding the way to store energy for a particular application is like finding the right battery for your watch: you might have to search for it, but there are plenty of knowledgeable people to help you look.