Wine Town Calistoga at Napa Valley to Fight Blackouts With Batteries, Hydrogen - Bloomberg

A California wine country town plagued by wildfires and blackouts could soon get a backup power supply capable of running most of its homes and businesses for two days on batteries and green hydrogen.

Utility giant PG&E Corp. and Energy Vault Holdings Inc. plan to create a microgrid covering most of Calistoga, a small town of restaurants, tasting rooms and shops at Napa Valley’s northern end. During disruptions on the region’s electrical grid, the microgrid would use a mix of lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells running on hydrogen to supply the town, with no greenhouse gas emissions.

Fuel cells employ an electrochemical process — rather than combustion — to generate electricity, and when fueled by hydrogen, their only emissions are water vapor. Energy Vault will buy the hydrogen, which will be stripped from water using solar power, from a third-party supplier...