Honda launched new station that will refuel Honda Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle in Torrance, CA.

Los Angeles Center of Honda R&D Americas, Inc. became the first place for Honda to launch the next generation solar hydrogen station prototype. The system is home re-fueling station, that will refill the fuel cell electric vehicle overnight. Small enough to find its place in average garage, the integrated unit system produces 0.5 kilograms of hydrogen during the 8-hour fill. This should be enough for 10,000 miles worth of commuting per year for the fuel cell electric vehicle.

In previous solar hydrogen stations involved the electrolyzer and a separate compressor unit that created high pressure hydrogen, while new generation system has a high differential pressure electrolyzer that evaluated the need of the compressor unit, which was expensive and large in size. As the result, new system is the most compact one in the world with efficiency improved by 25% compared with previous versions.

New system is “Smart Grid” compatible, which gives you an opportunity to directly refill the vehicle without having to store hydrogen elsewhere consuming less of the off-peak electrical power for that. In the daytime, the system can export electricity to the grid, providing cost benefit to the customer and remaining energy-neutral at the same time.

Compatible with a “Smart Grid” energy system, the Honda Solar Hydrogen Station would enable users to refill their vehicle overnight without the requirement of hydrogen storage, which would lower CO2 emissions by using less expensive off-peak electrical power. During daytime peak power times, the Solar Hydrogen Station can export renewable electricity to the grid, providing a cost benefit to the customer, while remaining energy neutral.

What remains unchanged is 48-panel, 6.0kW solar array that powers the system. It is the same as the one employed by the previous version.