New Brunswick Power is working with Joi Scientific on a hydrogen production system to enable the world’s first electricity grid that uses hydrogen as a baseload.
NB Power is re-adjusting its operations to create a highly efficient and green electricity grid. The collaboration envisages the deployment of Joi Scientific’s proprietary Hydrogen 2.0 production system at multiple distributed stations alongside wind turbines, hydro, and nuclear power to create a net-zero carbon-generating power operation while maintaining low and stable rates.
The joint commercial development between Joi Scientific and NB Power foresees the utility offering its emissions-free grid architecture, which combines distributed Hydrogen 2.0 baseload generation with smart grid management, to other utility operators across North America and beyond.
Joi Scientific’s Hydrogen 2.0 technology uses a high efficiency, high throughput system to liberate hydrogen from untreated seawater. Hydrogen 2.0 will enable the localized production of hydrogen on-site and on-demand, meaning that it can be generated when and where it is needed closer to where customers are located.
In New Brunswick, Hydrogen 2.0 has the potential to transform the transmission and distribution of electricity with a feedstock generated from readily available coastal seawater.
“NB Power has long been committed to investing in the sustainability of our province’s energy future. We are encouraged with the progress made to date on Hydrogen 2.0 and are looking forward to the next phase of co-development,” explained Gaëtan Thomas, President and CEO, NB Power. “Hydrogen 2.0 has the potential to provide a localized, on-demand hydrogen production capability which, when mixed with other renewable sources such as wind and hydro, gets us closer to our customers by delivering zero-carbon loads at lower cost and greater efficiency.”
This new development phase follows successful third-party verifications of Hydrogen 2.0 technology efficiency and throughput by scientific institutions and experts. Both companies are planning to work closely together to co-develop and test a commercial prototype unit at Joi Scientific’s labs at the Kennedy Space Center.
This development phase follows an initial license agreement that was signed in 2016, granting NB Power the rights to develop, manufacture, use, and sell hydrogen and hydrogen generation systems for large and small electric utility applications using Joi Scientific’s Hydrogen 2.0 technology.
