The first experiments on the use of solar energy in order to obtain commercial profit relate to the 80-th years of XX century. The greatest advances in this area of the company from the United States Loose Industries. In the end 1989 years, this company launched its first solar-gas plant in the history of, having power 80 MW. Later in California was commissioned for an additional 480 MW electric power, while the cost of 1 KWh was only 7-8 cents. This is almost two times lower, than most conventional stations.
Solar - the gas station is operated by a removable type, that it is, in the winter season and the energy at night gives predominantly gas, and in the afternoon and during the summer - the sun. On sunny - gas power, located in California, , a system based on parabolic trough reflectors in the form of troughs.
The California power plant has proven in practice, that the main energy sources of the future - the gas and the sun - can successfully complement each other. This also leads to the conclusion that, said liquid and gaseous fuel should be used as a supplement to the energy of the sun.
The most suitable for this purpose is hydrogen. Reverse hydrogen energy transfer process into electrical energy is achieved by the use of special devices - the fuel cell.
Therefore, that the best way to apply the energy of sunlight in our time - it is to use it for the production of secondary forms of energy in most areas of bright sunlight. Received using solar energy fuel may be transported to other places of the world.
In the electrolysis, the main part of the electric power consumed in the form of heat during the passage of electric current through the electrolyte. In systems, operating according to this principle, to receive one cubic meter of hydrogen necessary 4-5 kilowatt-hours of electricity. It is economically inefficient, because getting the same amount of gasoline with the same calorific value three times cheaper.
Meanwhile, many of the problems in the field of gas-bearing deposits arise from the release of hydrogen sulfide in the ambient atmosphere. Hydrogen sulfide is still considered harmful impurity. In this regard, it will be interesting to draw a parallel with the history of the gasoline used as fuel. After the appearance of the possibility to refine oil, yielding gasoline and kerosene, Last quickly found use as fuel for a kerosene lamp. But the application of gasoline at first there was no, and for many years he was considered a harmful waste product in petroleum refining, useless and very dangerous. Year by year, it became more and more, and destroy it became increasingly difficult.
By the beginning of the last century, the total weight of the gasoline being destroyed in the year reached hundreds of thousands of tons. Even held competitions for the best way to destroy this useless, as it thought, waste. this method, overturned the history of mankind, at the beginning of the XX century came up with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, suggesting to use gasoline as a fuel for internal combustion engines.
Today, hydrogen sulfide, at best, is used to produce sulfur. Obvious disadvantages of this costly process : of the hydrogen sulfide produced only sulfur, and the hydrogen passes directly into the water. This has led to attempts by the dissociation of hydrogen sulfide in the plasma to achieve producing two products at the same time: hydrogen and immediately condensed sulfur. This significantly reduces power consumption, associated with obtaining one cubic meter of hydrogen. Obtained in this way is cheaper hydrogen electrolysis tentatively 15 time. This makes it possible to widely use it in the field of industry and energy.
