Solar-powered fuelling station to support fuel cell vehicles

Solar-powered fuelling station to support fuel cell vehicles

Solar technology on the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) campus will soon be able to provide enough electricity to generate hydrogen for a number of fuel cell vehicles and provide electricity to the grid during peak power demands, it has been announced.

A photovoltaic (PV) array has just been completed near to the SMUD headquarters in Sacramento which delivers 80 kilowatts of power.

It is hoped that this will be enough to provide hydrogen for 14 fuel cell vehicles or electricity for 40 single-family homes.

A hydrogen fuelling station is currently under constructing which will support the fuel cell cars, and is due to be completed by the end of the year.

Until this time, the electricity generated by the PV array will be used to power the aforementioned homes.

At present, there are plans to test seven fuel cell vehicles at the solar-powered fuelling station as part of a demonstration project supported by Ford, Daimler Chrysler and BP.