Georgia Power merges hydrogen, natural gas for cleaner energy. Why it matters
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Georgia Power blended hydrogen with natural gas, cutting emissions by 22%.
- The test used existing gas turbines, showing retrofit potential for hydrogen use.
- Researchers highlight infrastructure and hydrogen sourcing as key next steps.
The energy research community is cheering after Georgia Power completed the largest ever test of blending hydrogen and natural gas to create energy at Plant McDonough last week.
The utility giant Georgia Power, which serves 2.7 million customers, collaborated with Mitsubishi Power, a Florida-based power company, to attempt the 50% hydrogen and 50% natural gas blend in an effort to reduce carbon emissions.
In a statement from Georgia Power, Mitsubishi Power Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Bissonnette called the successful showcase a “significant milestone for both companies to help Georgia Power reduce carbon emissions across its generation fleet.”
In 2023, Georgia Power emitted around 23 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to the company’s 2024 Sustainability Data Table. The company’s highest energy output comes from burning natural gas at power plants. It was 41% of their energy portfolio in 2024.
Hydrogen, the ubiquitous element with no carbon or greenhouse gas pollutants, can carry other forms of energy or be burned directly.
Benjamin Emerson, a principal researcher at Georgia Institute of Technology, has been studying combustion for power generation for over a decade, said hydrogen is one of the most reactive fuels for combustion. He spoke on behalf of the research community when he said the goal is to get beyond 50%, to 100%, because it’s clean and there are no CO2 emissions.
What Georgia Power accomplished is “highly innovative,” Emerson said.
“What they did is show the world that it’s feasible to burn zero carbon fuels in the existing assets that are out there in the world today.”
There were multiple demonstrations at various volumes of hydrogen, according to a spokesperson for Georgia Power, Mathew Kent. Each demonstration lasted between one and two hours of actual hydrogen blending.
Plant McDonough can send up to 2,520 megawatts to the grid, enough to power 1.7 million homes. But during this experiment, one “advanced class gas turbine” created 283 MW, according to Georgia Power.
The entire experiment lowered carbon emissions by 22%, according to Georgia Power.
Despite the blend being split 50-50, the volume of hydrogen is low density, which is why it isn’t a direct 50% reduction in emissions.
“When they measure that blend by volume, 50% by volume hydrogen is a lot less than 50% by mass hydrogen, and it’s that mass that actually drives the CO2 reduction,” Emerson said. “You have to get up into the 70 or 80 percent by volume to really get a significant CO2 reduction.”
Nevertheless, Valerie Thomas, a professor focusing on carbon emissions and hydrogen in the School of Industrial Systems and Engineering and the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech, was “pleased and proud.”
“I’m proud and I don’t normally go that way (with Georgia Power).”
Thomas was especially keen to learn that the process used cool air instead of steam in the new, advanced gas-turbine, M501GAC, because it’s more efficient.
“Just having an air-cooled turbine, I think, is exciting, because making electricity from natural gas more efficiently and doesn’t use water,” she said. When it’s air cooled, “you don’t have to boil the water to make the steam, so you’re not sitting there watching the kettle boil, you can just cool it with the air right away.”
Does Georgia have infrastructure to use more hydrogen?
Hydrogen has been on the minds of researchers, scientists and energy experts for decades, but tapping into it will take infrastructure build-out.
What excites Emerson is that Georgia Power is utilizing existing infrastructure.
“Most electricity in the world today is produced by gas turbine engines that burn natural gas in our country. What’s really neat is, taking a different fuel, like hydrogen, do a little retrofit to those engines, and the same way that we burn natural gas in those engines today, you could burn the hydrogen,” he said.
Plant McDonough, 10 miles from Atlanta, was built in 1941 to burn coal power. In 2012, it was converted to power natural gas. Emerson sees a future where natural gas plants start blending the old and new, carbon-free technologies to meet the energy needs of the present and future while lowering carbon emissions.
“If we can run our assets on something that’s not a fossil fuel that we produce here, and that’s a big deal,” Emerson said.
Using existing infrastructure is especially important when considering the time crunch for climate action.
Climate scientists urge a significant reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to avoid the worst effects of climate change for future generations. Plus, the time it takes to build power plants and the new demand for hydrogen abroad are crucial factors, according to Emerson.
“There’s huge demand for this, particularly from Europe, for hydrogen-burning gas turbines,” he said. “Europe is very strongly pushing this decarbonization, and in our country, you know, we want to be first in the world to export, power plant assets to the rest of the world. So from an export perspective, we’re highly motivated to be able to respond to that demand.”
Emerson said a lead time for an engine that a power plant would run on is seven years, and a decade of research and development on top of that.
Where did it come from and where to go from here?
Thomas believes the source of hydrogen is a really important factor as far as its efficacy in lowering emissions.
Right now, hydrogen can come from a byproduct of the chemical industry, mainly, or it can be created through steam methane or electrolysis (splitting hydrogen from water).
Electrolysis, the cleanest way, is also the most expensive.
“It is expensive to make hydrogen electrolytically or in other ways that have low greenhouse gas emissions,” Thomas said.
Georgia Power said Certarus delivered and sourced the hydrogen, and said it was “mostly green.” Green sourcing can mean a variety of ways to extract hydrogen, but the most common green energy form is electrolysis.
Thomas noted the 22% reported reduction in emissions might not take into account how it was created, which could increase emissions. For example, steam methane would add carbon to create it.
This was the second test by Georgia Power to blend hydrogen. The utility company tested this in 2022 and reduced emissions by 20%, according to the company’s statement.
Georgia Power did not say to what end hydrogen might be incorporated in their future energy development, only that this test was an “assessment of the future potential of this fuel source.”
Additionally, the company’s current 2025 Integrated Resource Plan, which maps out how the company will create energy for the next two decades, says Georgia Power is “evaluating hydrogen” as a “net zero operation” and part of its strategic research assets.
