Duke Energy is in the planning stages for a green hydrogen production and storage facility in DeBary, Florida. The utility estimates a cost of $100m for the project, which will be built on land adjacent to a 75 MW solar farm it owns. The DeBary City Council approved an amendment to  the company’s existing industrial planned-unit development to allow the project.

The system is the result of collaboration between Duke Energy, Sargent and Lundy, and GE Vernova and will be located at Duke Energy Florida’s DeBary plant in Volusia County, Fla.

The end-to-end system will begin with the existing 74.5-megawatt (MW) DeBary solar plant providing clean energy for two 1-MW electrolyzer units that will separate water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen atoms.

The resulting oxygen will be released into the atmosphere, while the green hydrogen will be delivered to nearby, reinforced containers for safe storage. During times when energy demand is highest, the system will deliver the stored green hydrogen to a combustion turbine (CT) that will be upgraded using GE Vernova technology to run on a natural gas/hydrogen blend or up to 100% hydrogen. This will be the nation’s first CT in operation running on such a high percentage of hydrogen.

Construction of the demonstration project in DeBary will begin later this year and could take about one year to complete. Duke Energy anticipates the system will be installed and fully functioning in 2024.