Honda has flipped the switch activating its next-generation solar hydrogen station prototype at its Torrance, California, R&D center. Ultimately, it’s seen as a home source capable of supplying an overnight refill for one’s fuel-cell electric vehicle. Designed to fit in an FCEV owner’s garage, the unit exploits Smart Grid technology to provide an 8-hour overnight charge of 0.5 kg of hydrogen, figured as sufficient for a typical 10,000-mile/year daily commute.
Given that solar energy arrives in daylight and charging is overnight, the Smart Grid interaction is not only beneficial but essential. The hydrogen is generated through electrolysis of water, the necessary electricity taking advantage of overnight off-peak rates obtained with Smart Grid “Time of Use” metering. During the day, the 48-panel 6-kW solar array captures energy and sells electricity back to the utility, again exploiting the Smart Grid concept.
This approach is seen as more efficient than diverting the daylight-sourced energy directly for overnight refills, whether though a battery storing the electricity or gaseous storage of electrolyzer-produced hydrogen. Honda’s previous solar hydrogen station system had both an electrolyzer and separate compressor; this latter, an expensive component reducing system efficiency. This latest iteration uses a new high-differential-pressure electrolyzer, said to be a world’s first intended for home use.
The idea of an overnight home unit is seen as complementing a public network of fast-fill (i.e., 5-minute) hydrogen stations, something still very much in embryonic development and only in selected “cluster” regions around the country. Fortunately, we at Road & Track are in such a cluster neighborhood. We’re less than 7 miles from existing hydrogen, 24/7, at the University of California Irvine’s National Fuel Cell Research Center—and even closer to a proposed Shell station dispensing the stuff.
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