Honda begins operations of its stationary fuel cell power station in California. It is in its Torrance campus. With these operations, the company is taking the first step toward the future commercialization of zero-emission backup power generation. It will help boost its hydrogen fuel technology and contribute towards its global carbon neutrality goals.
Now fully operational as a demonstration program, Honda’s fuel cell power station supplies clean and quiet emergency backup power to the data center on the campus of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. In the coming years, Honda will begin applying a next-generation stationary fuel cell system to Honda manufacturing facilities and data centers globally, thereby reducing the company’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The demonstration stationary fuel cell unit has a capacity of approximately 500 kW and reuses the fuel cell systems of previously leased Honda Clarity Fuel Cell vehicles, with a design that allows the output to increase every 250 kW packaged with four fuel cells. It features 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.
Hydrogen usage
Future stationary FC units intended for commercialization will utilize Honda’s next-generation FC system jointly developed with General Motors and also set to power an all-new fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) based on the Honda CR-V coming in 2024. Over the last few years, the power requirements of data centers have been growing rapidly due to the expansion of cloud computing and big data utilization, and the need for backup power sources has been increasing from the perspective of business continuity planning (BCP). The Torrance fuel cell station also serves as a proof of concept for future commercialization of the power generation unit.
Koji Moriyama, project lead of the stationary fuel cell and principal engineer with American Honda R&D Business Unit, said, “We believe there’s great promise in hydrogen fuel cells for backup power and offsetting potential peak power events. By installing and utilizing 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.” Last fall, Honda announced that starting in 2024 it will produce an all-new hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) based on the recently launched, all-new Honda CR-V at its Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC) in Marysville, Ohio. The company has been developing hydrogen technologies and fuel cell vehicles for more than 30 years.
