Putting the wind in the hydrogen village
Hydrogenics Corp. and the province of Prince Edward Island have announced a $10.3 million project that will result in clean hydrogen production and storage of wind power.
About 5 per cent of PEI’s power supply comes from wind. This project reminds me a bit of what’s being done in Iceland, a place I had a chance to visit last June. Renewable geothermal and hydro dams power most the country, making it an idea place for clean hydrogen product. Iceland wants to use its abundant renewable energy resources to create hydrogen infrastructure that will support the transition to fuel-cell vehicles and, further down the road, hydrogen-powered boats and planes.
PEI, like Iceland, is a small island community, making it an ideal place for experimentation and demonstration. A number of homes and buildings will be powered by a combination of wind and hydrogen fuel cell storage as part of the three-year project. Eventually they’ll set up a hydrogen fuelling station in Charlottetown, similar to the one in Reykjavik, Iceland. That station will be used by three hydrogen shuttle buses and utility vehicles. Near the end of the project a farm operation will be powered and a hydrogen-powered tour boat will be put in service.
You’ve got to hand it to Hydrogenics for pushing these projects along and creating awareness of fuel cells through high-profile demonstrations. The company perhaps over-relies on these government-funded experiments, but these demonstrations are needed to prove that the technology works in different scenarios and applications.
Randall MacEwen, vice-president of Mississauga-based Hydrogenics, said in a company release that PEI’s decision to play a role will help lessen its dependence on imported power, in addition to the obvious environmental and local economic benefits.
“PEI’s strong wind regime, geographic size, political will, skilled work force and committed academic community make PEI a perfect location to demonstrate and deploy wind-hydrogen technologies,” said MacEwen. We believe this initiative will position PEI to become a model for future wind-hydrogen deployments globally, particularly for island and off-grid communities.”
I will watch this project with great interest.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
November 27th, 2005 at 3:14 am
Hello, a msg from the Holland: in January there’ll be a meeting which has good potential to effectively be the start of Maastricht as a hydrogen village. It uses a rare combination of resources, which could jump start a significant role for hydrogen in the world’s energy demands. Details on http://www.hydrogenmaastricht.org
Live long and prosper, Emil