International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol. 2, pp. 405411. Pergamon Press, 1977.

Printed in Great Britain

THE G R E E N L A N D H Y D R O P O W E R AS A SOURCE OF ELECTROLYTIC H Y D R O G E N

U. LA ROCHE BBC Brown Boveri & Company Limited, Group Staff Planning, Baden, Switzerland Abstraet--A preliminary assessment of the Greenland hydropower potential is presented. Based on classical exploitation techniques the proven mean annual power capacity is estimated at 15-40 GW while the ultimate potential is between 100 GW and 1 TW. This potential will not only satisfy the energy needs of Greenland itself but will also allow for large scale energy export. One of the best solutions for transporting this energy is the & sire synthesis of ammonia on the basis of liquefied air and electrolytic hydrogen, a suggestion already made in the project "Energy Depot" of the U.S. army. The ammonia would then be shipped overseas by LNG-tankers in liquid form. Expected costs are comparable to current prices on the world's market.

INTRODUCTION GREENLAND'S geographic data are summarized in Table 1. All precipitation on the inland ice cover falls as snow or frost, with the amount increasing from north to south. Water thus accumulated on the inland ice cover in the so-called accumulation zone then moves to the peripheral ablation zone towards the coast by gravity-induced ice movement. In this zone ablation in summer is larger than annual precipitation. Ablation is in practice the sum of smelting water and icebergs.

TABLE

1.

Geographic Greenland

data

of

Surface Ice free coastal area Islands Inland ice cover P e a k altitude North South Total ice volume (about 8 ~o of world's fresh water)

2,175.600 k m 2 296.900 k m 2 44.800 k m 2 1,833.900 k m 2 3.300 m 2.850 m 2,600.000 k m 3

The smelting water of the peripheral ablation zone flows mostly through an icefree coastal zone which has the character of an alpine plateau and is some 400-800 m above sea-level. A unique combination of large volumes of smelting water and an icefree plateau having numerous natural lakes for water storage, with generally favourable ratios of vertical to horizontal distances is created by this. Exploitation of these possibilities would not create environmental and population problems as encountered elsewhere. The expected power generation costs reflect this and to date are expected to be 4-7 mills/kWh bus-bar.

ASSESSMENT OF POTENTIAL Assessment of the Greenland hydropower potential is done in categories of increasing uncertainty as is equally done e.g. with mineral resources. 4O5

406

U . LA R O C H E

Proven potential
The proven Greenland hydropotential can be estimated by taking into account 1. The amount of water flowing to the sea, minus the volume of icebergs, separated as : - - The volume of smelting water from the inland ice cover - - The volume of precipitation in the icefree coastal zone. 2. The mean value of head difference available separated as: - - Mean value for water from the inland ice cover - - Mean value tbr precipitation in the icefree coastal zone. The estimates available on ablation vary considerably; summary of figures is given in Table 2. On the basis of a detailed study of the lakelike structures up to 76N, a preliminary breakdown of water volume and head can be established as shown in Table 3.

TABLE 2. Estimates of amount of ablation

Volume of ablation of inland ice [1] (Bader 1961) (Bauer & Holtzscherer) Volume of precipitations on icefree coastal zone

120 k m 3 315 km 3 105 km 3

TABLE 3. Amount of available water and mean head in the ice-free coastal zone up to 76~N (with estimation of mean annual power)
Head 400 m mean : 15 G W volume 120 km 3 (min) 39 G W volume 315 k m 3 (max) Head 200 m mean : 6.7 G W volume 105 k m 3 (precipitations in icefree coastal region)

Reasonably assured potential

Propositions exist on how to exploit the increased head up to the nunataker (Fig. 1). The nunataker is the mountain range curbing the inland ice cover. The technical feasibility of these propositions cannot be sufficiently judged on the basis of presently available data. The exploitation of this reasonably assured potential, as a preliminary study on available information [-1~] shows, is estimated between 21.6 and 85 GW mean annual power. This figure is based on the average head of the nunataker, which is between 1000 and 2000 m above sea level.
Inlond ice cover Edge of i n l e n d ice cover Ice free coostol z o n e
.....

Nunatak

IO00m--

Fjord

50Ore--

+--~
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4-

Om--

FIG. I. Idealized

topography of ablation zone of Greenland ice cover (H. Stauber).

THE GREENLAND HYDROPOWER AS A SOURCE OF ELECTROLYTIC HYDROGEN

407

Ultimately recoverable potential

By not yet assessed artificial albedo change on selected sites on the inland ice the Greenland hydropower potential could obviously be increased further. However, careful onsite studies will have to ensure proper handling of all aspects of such a procedure. The possible size of such projects is 1 0 0 G W t o 1TW. Whereas tapping of the proven potential implies conventional hydropower technology only, tapping of the reasonably assured potential and ultimately recoverable potential depends on the practicability of an active smelting water management on the ice sheet within the ablation zone.

Exploitation assessment
Having made an assessment of the crude potential a few explanations on the means of exploitation will be needed. It will be shown that the full potential will only gradually become available, as realization of the hydropower systems has to be integrated with the more detailed knowledge of the hydrology and glaciology necessary for further exploitation.

Conventional storage type hydropower in icefree zone

As previously mentioned, conditions for conventional hydropower are very favorable in Greenland, where we find a combination of: - - Large amounts of water produced periodically during the summer ablation period (3-4 months in SW-Greenland). Glacially-eroded plateau with numerous natural storage lakes of sizable dimensions, which if necessary could be improved with a rather small additional effort. - - Sizable heads. The occurrence of fjords does substantially improve the mean vertical to horizontal distance ratio for the water ducts. A site prestudy has revealed, however, that data on local water availability vary and are not sufficient for final site planning. Observation sites up till now have simply been too widely spaced. Table 4 [-2, 3] gives some of the key values, which are based on interpolation of data available.

TABLE4. Sample precipitation values cited Source Site prestudy Mock11967~South North Benson(1962) Precipitations 80 cm 80 cm 30cm Ice ablation 300cm

107cm

Since smelting takes place only in summer during roughly 3 months, a high volume water storage would help to reduce installed power and increase the annual load factor. To achieve this a storage volume of around 90-240 km 3 would be necessary. Indications are that it is possible to arrive at this without undue difficulties. Up to 76N we find some 4500 natural lakes with more than 1 km 2 area. However to plan and build up these hydropower systems, including tapping and directing ablation water from the inland ice cover to the storage system in the icefree coastal zone, requires quite detailed investigations. Whether it is possible to direct smelting water on the surface of the inland ice, and whether and how permafrost does complicate water duct construction are presently open questions.

Storage up to nunataker level, e.g. "glacier-storage"

The Greenland geologist, Dr, H. Stauber [4] has put forward the hypothesis that in principle it

408

U. LA ROCHE

should be possible to exploit the additional head from the nunataker level (1000 to 2000 m) down to sea-level. The procedure envisaged would consist of:
-

Storage of ablation water on inland ice above nunataker level, behind nunataker barrage Correction and tapping of natural water channel system on ice surface within ablation zone Water ducts from the nunataker to bring ablation water underground to power stations at the edge of the inland ice cover.

An important advantage of this procedure would be a much simpler and more efficient tapping of the ablation water, since the surface conditions on the inland ice cover above nunataker level are much better suited to this purpose. In view of the advantages to be gained in such exploitation, we think it worth-while to check the feasibility of this up-till-now controversial proposal on the basis of in situ explorations. Art![Tcial albedo decrease Since the albedo of the inland ice cover is very high (> 0.95), an artificial decrease is quite easily applied. There are indications that the general global dust pollution has already made an impact in this direction. Locally applied, an ablation increase up to orders of magnitude seems possible. But again without careful assessment of all elements to be considered, based on a detailed local exploration the method cannot be judged in general although it may look promising, ENERGY COST CONSIDERATIONS The energy cost considerations given here are based on a site prestudy involving six favorable sites chosen on the west coast (Table 5). No special price tags h~ve been included for local conditions in Greenland, on the more or less tacit assumption that, costs incurred in central European alpine situations, including environmental charges due to high population density, would compare more or less to costs in Greenland with its more restricted and difficult working conditions.

TABLE 5. Site prestudy results

Site Horizontal distance storage to power station (m) Head (m) Distance to Head ratio Power capacity (MW) Investment cost MiO($) Energy production (GWh) Energy cost (mills/KWh) Gl I 1,750 680 17.3 110 46 965 6 G2 100 75-90 1.3-1. l 40~48 22 42 35ff420 8 11 G3 12,000 450 26 110 54 965 7 G4 13,000 320 40.6 110 67 965 8.5 G5 2250 432 5.2 110 33 965 3.7 G6 3750 210 17.8 110 44 965 5.5

By combination of satellite information on the ablation zone in summer, some sparse local verification and detailed local topography maps available, water volume expected and head were analyzed. On this basis the power capacity to be installed, including storage lakes, was obtained to allow estimation of energy production and energy cost figures. From Table 6 we conclude, that electric bus-bar cost could be some 4-7 mills/kWh. The next problem will be the transportation abroad of this energy, which when exploited, will exceed local needs by far. Several schemes have been studied, and taking into consideration local transportation needs in Greenland, one of the most flexible and cost-efficient systems to cope with this distant and scattered

THE GREENLAND

HYDROPOWER

AS A S O U R C E O F E L E C T R O Y T I C

HYDROGEN

409

TABLE 6. Costs in $ or Mega-$ (MS), weight in short tons volumes in Nm 3 (At 0C and 1 bar pressure.)
Breakdown of ammonia-synthesis costs Investment cost : M$ Specific cost : Capital cost 0.15 annuity $/sht N2-production from air Other costs Electrolysis and H2-production costs Development target for investment cost (proposition) Specific consumption Hz-cost depending on electrolysis plant costs continuous operation Comparison of H2-competitiveness H2-cost allowed for competition with natural gas as feedstock at xI/MBTU in l/sht NH 3 H2-cost due to electricity at 4 mills/kWh

(sht),

12.5 5.7 2.3 2.0

( 1000 sht/day)

100 $/kW 4.5 kWh/nm3hz 15 $/sht NH 3 46.5 (1 $/MBTU) 77 (2 $/MBTU) 110 (3 $/MBTU) 32 $/sht NH 3

00 I

LNH fronsportofloncost 3 ,/ ./"

."

....;2.," /

,,e~ .~#"
~
IOC - - - - ... " : " ~ ./,,x* ~" ,/

-~

.
! naturat~as

;,e --/~--,~-~oc~
_

...

~>./

/'

./ /
l 2
,

I 4

I 6
[knm]

I 8

I|0

-~

i Greenland 4Gulf - US 4... . ~ Gulf -Eur + chonnel fore

I KIIonouticol

mile - I 0 0 0

noul"lcal

miles

FIG. 2. L N H 3 t r a n s p o r t a t i o n costs.

410

U. LA ROCHE

hydropower potential appears to be one that transforms electrical energy into hydrogen in the intermediate form of ammonia synthesized locally. The use of gaseous and liquid ammonia (LNH3) is a concept worked out in the well-known project "Energy Depot" contract executed in the 1960s for the U.S. army [5]. We have gone through the costs incurred, which are summarized in Table 6 [-6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]. An analysis of transportation costs of liquid ammonia LNH 3 is presented in Fig. 2, where ship transportation is compared to local production based on a price of $2.5/MBTU for natural gas feedstock.

/,/
~Z /s

./ [Rp/kWh]

//" / // / // // ,," /
0.7.'

..D .."
/^C "" ~

/:# LNH3 / :~"

rail - - 7 ~

~ ~

/ 0.5 // / . A,o
,
# .: ...

....../ / "
i

LNy/

.:/..-~/Ct2NaOH
0.25

/..-....'"

Z "/7"
I000
At

~.

2000

rkm]
I $ 2 5 0 Swiss Rp

FIG. 3. Energy transmission costs.

Comparison of several energy transportation methods in Fig. 3 identifies the potential of LNH 3 ship transport. If electricity is to be transported, its conversion to chemical energy, e.g. LNH 3, may well be an interesting answer that, depending on the local conditions of supply and distribution, can even be clearly competitive. As mentioned earlier [-12], even a pure energy price consideration of ammonia produced locally on the sites of hydropower systems appears not to be out of a cost range that is to be taken into consideration for the decade to come. The lower limit of costs would be placed around $60/sht NH 3 which is roughly equivalent to $2/MBTU energy content. CONCLUSION Of course the assumptions on exploitability of the hydropower at the cost estimated and to a lesser degree the realization of the development targets for the electrolyzer units proposed still have to be verified.

THE GREENLAND HYDROPOWER AS A SOURCE OF ELECTROYTIC HYDROGEN

411

We consider liquid a m m o n i a to be a quite serious contender for the role of a means to transport and utilize distant electrical energy, much as is done today with distilled oil products. The very preliminary cost analysis does indicate that application of the concept "Energy Depot" combined with a hopefully realizable modern electrolysis technology would allow exploitation of distant hydroelectric power to be commercially attractive. Against this background it appears not only worth-while to reconsider electrolysis as a means to produce hydrogen from electricity, but also in parallel to initiate the exploration work necessary for large scale exploitation of the hydroelectric power potentials still untouched but available, e.g. in Greenland. REFERENCES I. H. BADER,The Greenland Ice Sheet 1960, U.S. army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. 2. C. BENSON,Strati#raphic Studies in the Snow and Firn of the Greenland Ice Sheet 1962, U.S. army Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment. 3. S. MOCK,Calculated patterns of accumulation on the Greenland ice sheet. J. Glaciol. 6, (48) (1967). 4. C. KOLLBRUNNER& H. STAUaER,(1972) Gletscherkraftwerke in Gr6nland, Institut fiJr bauwissenschaftliche Forschung, Stiftung Kollbrunner/Rodio, Verlag Leewaum, Zurich. 5. R. M. REINSTROM,Mills N. T. Ammonia production feasibility study, Allison Div. GM, AD 476 371 (1965). 6. H. SPRINGMAN,Linde Berichte 31, 3-9 (1972). 7. O. J. QUARTULLI W. TURNER,Nitrogen 80, (1972); 81, (1973). and 8. L. J. BUIVIDAS,Hydrogen Proc. 70, 10, 21-33 (1974). 9. L. AXELROD,CEP 64, No. 7, 17-25 (1968). 10. W. W. DESCHNER,Hydrooen Proc. 47, 9, 261-264 (1968). I I. Handbook of Chemistry and Physics 55th ed. CRC Press, Cleveland; 1974-75. 12. W. HAEFELE W. SASSIN,Applications of nuclear power other than for electricity generation (invited paper), and European Nuclear Conference "Nuclear Eneroy Maturity" Paris, April 21-25, 1975.