About team SHIFT
SHIFT has one goal in mind: enhance the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier and, most importantly, producing it from renewable energy. We aim at addressing multiple pressing questions, namely, how can we solve grid congestion due to renewable energy production? How can we greenify industries that are known to be very polluting? How can we do all this in a way that also brings profit to the end user? Our answer is Hydrogen.
As a multidisciplinary student team, all of our members are working hard to achieve our goals. Founded in 2021, we work from the TU/e Innovation Space, the center of expertise for challenge-based learning and student entrepreneurship at TU/e.
Adressing the problem
The offset between green energy production and energy demand results in a peak of excess energy production during midday, when solar energy production is highest. The infeed of this excess energy into the grid is a direct cause of grid congestion. As a result of this, agricultural companies are experiencing problems with their energy production:
Some have solar panels installed but are not able to sell (all) their excess produced energy to the grid.
Some want to install solar panels, but are not able to because they cannot get a grid connection.
Starting in 2025 energy producers will only receive compensation for a portion of the energy they returned to the grid, due to Dutch government wanting phase out the “balancing system”.
In order to combat these problems, SHIFT is developing a decentralized hydrogen production system, where a robust, optimal, and smart control system is uitilized to ensure that all energy infrastructure is used to its fullest potential, and costs & wasted resources are reduced to a minimum. We are working on a controller that is able to decide when it is best to activate the electrolyser so that the excess renewable energy produced does not go wasted and can be turned into valuable hydrogen that can be used to substitute gas consumption. Moreover, we are doing it at a very small scale with our target customers being farmers and small businesses.
Are you interested in contributing to the future of hydrogen from a technical and managerial perspective, or you have a farm or a small business and recognise yourself in this situation? Don’t hesitate to contact us!
