French initiatives for storage of renewable energies by hydrogen

The French start-up Sylfen has developed an original energy storage device using hydrogen. France is positioned today as a leader in technology research that uses hydrogen, a vector of energy and heat, to respond to the intermittent of renewable energy sources.
Based on the principle that a renewable energy source producing electricity alternately too much or too little compared to consumption, the Sylfen start-up has imagined a means of storing the product surplus, in the form of hydrogen, so that it is used when demand is high.
This device, called Smart Energy HUB, uses the reversibility of the energy processor, a world first: the equipment is capable of functioning as an electrolyser to transform into hydrogen the surplus of electricity created locally and, conversely, in battery to Fuel to restore this hydrogen in the form of electricity when you need it.
This system has the advantage of being compact and affordable, since a hydrogen cylinder returns twenty times cheaper than a battery, while allowing to store up to 40 kWh of energy. Now having a prototype, the start-up is planning marketing for 2018.
In France, other projects have already tested the use of hydrogen to store electricity: the myrtle platform in Corsica or the wise stations developed by the Powidian start-up offering a double storage system demonstrate the ‘Efficiency and sustainability of electricity storage thanks to hydrogen.