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The paper shows that the cost of electrolyzers, which can

Jan. 28, 2019 by Elizabeth Duran

The paper shows that the cost of electrolyzers, which can be charged at much higher voltages than current batteries, have been dropping in recent years. "What's going on here is that the cost of electrolyzers has fallen dramatically over the past decade," explains lead author Jonathan C. Kostor, also of the Department of Chemistry in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. "So this is the first time we know that the efficiency, the efficiency of a generator, has fallen even as the cost of the equipment continues to fall."

Kostor, who has been building high-voltage solar power systems as a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is also at the forefront of research into electrolyzers that can be charged at an extremely low, high voltage. But his team's research is only the beginning, he explains.

The first electrolyzers can be charged at about 10 volts, though they can be charged at much higher voltages, and the cost of a new one is likely to be higher. This is because electrolyzers that can use electricity instead of water, for example, have higher efficiency and may even cost more money than electrolyzers that produce pure hydrogen.

"The reason the electrolyzers are so expensive is if they can be charged at higher rates, they're cheaper than batteries. You can charge a battery at 10 volts, and then you can store it in your fridge. It's the same thing with electricity, you can charge it at 10 volts and then you can store it in your refrigerator and recharge it later," Kostor told Quartz.

But this is not the case for hydroelectric power. Hydroelectric power is more energy-efficient than conventional power sources, including solar and natural gas, because it can be powered by hydropower and other renewable sources. In the case of hydroelectric, that means it can be used without the need for batteries, as opposed to a typical conventional generator. Instead, a hydroelectric generator can be loaded with water, which can be pumped into a turbine for electricity by using steam pumped from the nearby river in the process.

But the cost of water is still high and it's hard to know how high the cost of a hydrogen-fueled solar plant will go in the future. Kostor says the company is still in talks with the DOE to develop a hydrogen-fueled hydrogen plant that works on solar and wind energy.From the very first days of the presidential campaign, the press made the case that the