New Energy World™
New Energy World™ embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low-carbon technologies.
Pitfalls of power-to-x
20/4/2026
8 min read
Feature
Not all renewable power projects feed electricity directly into the grid. Some create useful chemical products or decarbonised energy carriers such as e-fuels instead. Their fortune depends on large-scale demand for their products, but not only, writes Selwyn Parker.
In a landmark event for power-to-x (PtX) in early 2026, the vast city of Los Angeles ditched coal-generated electricity from the Intermountain power project in Utah in favour of a combination of green hydrogen and natural gas.
Despite US President Donald Trump’s declared hostility towards green energy, the project is on track to deliver entirely carbon-free energy on a sliding scale. The first of their kind, the turbines are currently burning a mix of 70% natural gas and 30% green hydrogen, with hydrogen’s percentage rising steadily to 100% within 20 years.
The former coal-burning giant has a unique natural advantage. Surplus production of hydrogen will be stored in up to 100 underground salt caverns for retrieval according to need. The US activist organisation Green Hydrogen Coalition explains that just one of these caverns can take 5,500 tonnes of hydrogen gas: ‘This is equivalent to 200,000 hydrogen buses and 1,000,000 hydrogen fuel cell cars.’ Running at full load, 40 electrolysers can produce 100 t/d of hydrogen.