It’s Wednesday, March 11, and Los Angeles is getting a major clean energy makeover.
For more than 30 years, energy from one of the largest coal-burning plants in the U.S. has powered the City of Angels — but no more. The Utah plant that provides 1,900 megawatts of electricity for Los Angeles is switching to a mixture of natural gas and clean hydrogen gas. Soon after, they’ll phase out the natural gas to make L.A. the first U.S. city powered by a 100 percent hydrogen plant.
The new and improved facility, owned by the Intermountain Power Agency, will use excess wind and solar power to make a form of hydrogen gas that can be stored and burned for energy when needed. The Los Angeles Department of Power and Water (LADWP) is planning a full transition to renewable energy by 2045 at the latest, and the company running the new gas turbines suggests it could be running on 100 percent hydrogen in as few as 10 years.
Hydrogen gas can store much more energy than batteries, and Martin Adams, the chief engineer for the largest municipal water and power utility in the country, says that’s key for reaching an entirely renewable future. “We believe renewable hydrogen is an essential technology for LADWP to achieve a 100 percent renewable power grid,” he told Bloomberg Green.
The Smog
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