Honda Officially Launches First Stationary Fuel Cell Power Station
Honda has begun operating a stationary fuel cell power station on its corporate campus in Torrance, California. Hydrogen Industry Leaders looks at how this is marking Honda’s first step towards future commercialisation of zero-emission backup power generation.
The initiative uses Honda’s hydrogen fuel cell technology expertise and will help contribute to the company’s global goal of achieving carbon neutrality for all products and corporate activities by 2050. Honda’s fuel cell power station supplies backup power to the data centre on the campus of American Honda Motor Co.
Honda has said that it will begin applying a next-generation stationary fuel cell system to Honda manufacturing facilities and data centres globally. This aims to reduce the company’s GHG emissions.
It will see the demonstration stationary fuel cell unit with a capacity of approximately 500kW and reuse the fuel cell systems of previously leased Honda Clarity Fuel Cell vehicles, with a design allowing the output to increase every 250kW packaged with four fuel cells.
In addition, it will feature the flexibility to change the layout of the fuel cell units to suit the installation environment and to accommodate cubic, L-shaped, Z-shaped, and other packaging configurations.
Koji Moriyama, Project Lead of the stationary fuel cell and principal engineer with American Honda R&D Business Unit, said that providing clean energy for Honda’s customers is essential: “We believe there’s great promise in hydrogen fuel cells for backup power and offsetting potential peak power events.
“By installing and utilising our core technology, the fuel cell system, in various applications such as stationary power generation, Honda aims to stimulate hydrogen usage and provide clean energy for potential commercial customers.”
Future stationary units intended for commercialisation will use Honda’s next-generation FC system jointly developed with General Motors and will also power an all-new fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) based on the Honda CR-V coming in 2024.
