Prof. John W. Sheffield
167 Knoy Hall of Technology, Purdue University, USA
Title: Green Hydrogen: A Value-Add for Solar PV
Abstract:
There is a real potential for green hydrogen made from excess solar PV electricity to become a value-add for solar PV. To maintain electric grid stability, utility operators often cap the amount of renewable electricity to avoid overloading the electric transmission and distribution grid. With more large-scale solar PV facilities developing during the next few years, the challenges of balancing power grids become more complex. With the increasing renewable energy capacity, green hydrogen, produced from excess renewable electricity, becomes a key energy vector with significant energy storage capacity. Hence, green hydrogen addresses one of the primary concerns about the intermittent nature of solar PV and helps to make the transition to a sustainable energy future a reality.
Biography:
Dr. John W. Sheffield is a Professor of Engineering Technology at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S.A. His professional career in hydrogen energy technologies began in 1976 when he was working for Pratt and Whitney Aircraft in West Palm Beach, Florida developing high-power, continuous wave, hydrogen-fluoride and deuterium-fluoride chemical lasers. Later, Dr. Sheffield served as one of the founding associate directors at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization - International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies (UNIDO-ICHET) in Istanbul, Turkey.
Dr. Sheffield received his Bachelor of Engineering Science degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and his Master of Engineering Mechanics and his Ph.D. in Engineering Science & Mechanics degrees from North Carolina State University.
For more than 46 years, Dr. Sheffield has served as an editor of the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, the official journal of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE). Prior to being elected in 2019 as the President of IAHE, Dr. Sheffield served as the Executive Vice President of IAHE.