Automaker Honda is placing an early wager on stationary fuel cell power for facilities such as data centers.
To test this, the company is planning to install a stationary fuel cell station on its corporate U.S. campus in Torrance, California. The station could be operational by early 2023.
Honda envisons fuel cell technology, which can utilize zero-carbon hydrogen, as a zero-emission backup power resource for data centers and other mission critical sites. Most of these currently use diesel or natural gas-fired backup generators.
"We will leverage the expertise Honda has established in creating multiple generations of fuel cell systems for the development of a fuel cell power generation station," said Mitsuru Kariya, senior vice president in charge of the R&D Business Unit of American Honda. "This project is an opportunity to further utilize our strengths in fuel cell technology to more quickly create, assess and advance a clean power generation system for potential commercial customers."
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Honda's proof of concept fuel cell power station will utilize fuel cell components from Honda Clarity Fuel Cell vehicles in a flexible, four-quad parallel stationary fuel cell power generation system capable of generating up to 1,152 kW-DC/1 MW-AC from an inverter.
The station will be connected to the data center on the American Honda campus in early 2023, providing a real-world power generation application to verify performance.
Honda says it remains committed to developing fuel cell systems for passenger vehicles and larger trucks and transport ships. That market is expanding rapidly, the company says, and could grow to more than $86 billion annually by the end of the decade.
Yet data centers currently consume close to 70 billion kWh of electricity annually in the U.S. alone. Companies in that realm such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Iron Mountain and others are committing themselves to net zero goals also over the coming decades.
Honda has been producing fuel cell vehicles since the turn of the 21st century.
Hydrogen itself does not contain carbon to emit. To be truly green hydrogen, it must be produced by electrolysis powered by zero carbon resources such as wind, solar or nuclear.
Companies such as Caterpillar also are working on fuel-cell backup power systems which could supply data centers.
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(Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 14-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can reached at [email protected]).
