Duke Energy aims to achieve its energy transition goals by reaching net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business by 2030, and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. While the company is expanding its renewable fleet to meet these milestones, it requires reliable and dispatchable power to serve the rising electricity demand.
Duke Energy embarked on its Debary Hydrogen Project featuring a wing-to-wing energy system: The company will leverage excess solar generation to produce their own hydrogen and then store it onsite in tanks. And finally, GE will upgrade Debary’s 7E gas turbine in third quarter of 2024, enabling it to run on up to 100% hydrogen to meet peak demand.
Companies like Duke Energy in the United States are seeing the potential for bringing cleaner, more renewable sources of energy online for their customers who demand it. They also know that these sources come with the built-in challenge of keeping electricity levels consistent and uninterrupted, especially during peak demand periods when primary wind and solar may be unavailable.
In what is expected to be a first-of-its-kind operation, Duke Energy started the DeBary Hydrogen Project at its solar farm outside of Orlando, Florida. Using a set of electrolyzers, part of the plant’s vast solar array will be dedicated to producing green hydrogen, which will be stored on site to distribute during those peak demand periods.
Once the upgrade is completed in the second half of 2024 and it’s fully operational, the converted 83 megawatt (MW) 7E gas turbine will have the ability to operate on natural gas, liquid fuel, 100% hydrogen, or a blend of natural gas and hydrogen. Duke Energy’s DeBary plant is expected to become among the first commercially operational power plants to produce, store, and use green hydrogen for peaking power applications. Furthermore, it's the first commercial operation of a gas turbine of this class on 100% hydrogen fuel.
The gas turbine will have operating and fuel flexibility, all while maintaining plant reliability. Moreover, emissions will be maintained within the existing site permit on any of the fuels, including hydrogen, with the use of diluent injection at site.
Safety is a top priority throughout the execution of this project. GE Vernova is leveraging experience across an existing fleet of over 130 units operating on hydrogen blends. This unique experience allows us to deploy proven solutions to manage the specific risks related to hydrogen fuels.
The combination of Duke Energy's solar field, electrolyzers and GE Vernova's 100% hydrogen-capable gas turbine technology demonstrates a great opportunity for dispatchable decarbonized power and the ability to convert existing gas turbine installations for this purpose.
This collaboration is a groundbreaking achievement for GE Vernova and Duke Energy as our industry continues to move forward on our path towards decarbonization.
Our existing solar field and gas turbines… provide a unique opportunity… to produce green hydrogen, store it onsite, and then combust it to ensure reliable service when electricity demand is high. This combination of technologies will allow gas turbines to become decarbonized, dispatchable assets that support the addition of more renewables to our grid.
Regis Repko
Senior vice president of generation and transmission strategy, Duke Energy
As we started working more and more on the project, we really found some excellent project partners, including GE…
Clift Pompee
Duke Energy’s managing director of Generation Technology
