North Dakota-based energy monitoring and fuel cell firm BWR Innovations has been contracted to deliver integration capabilities for a future hydrogen fuel cell microgrid project at a legendary military base in Hawaii.
Global Connective Center LLC granted BWR Innovations the two-year subcontract as part of an agreement with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The Hydrogen Fuel Cell Microgrid (H2MG) project is a research, development, testing and evaluation effort to demonstrate feasibility and performance of the solar-hydrogen (H2) storage and off-take system.
The goal is to develop and support island-able microgrids which can be disconnected, operate and maintain power in the event of an overall grid outage. The H2MG project will expand on the current capabilities of the 1.5-MW Pacific Energy Assurance Renewables Laboratory solar photovoltaic microgrid which was started eight years ago at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam in Oahu.
“This AFRL project is an important demonstration of the BWR hydrogen fuel cell integration technology. We expect that the results from this project will reflect the importance of hydrogen as a critical component in the clean energy microgrid solutions,” Joel Jorgenson, president and CEO of BWR, said in a statement.
BWR Innovations will deliver a 1-MW electrolyzer, which splits water into its H2 and oxygen components, a compressor, 600 kilograms of hydrogen storage capacity, 600 kW of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells and software technology to control and integrate it into the existing microgrid at Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
Fuel cells take a resource, such as hydrogen or natural gas, and use a electrochemical process to convert the fuel to electrical energy. To be considered truly green hydrogen, the H2 should be created from electrolyzers powered by carbon-free resources such as solar, wind, battery storage or nuclear. Hydrogen does not contain carbon in its chain and thus does not emit carbon dioxide when combusted or consumed.
The project is supported by a stakeholder base that includes the Indo-Pacific Command, the National Guard Bureau, the Hawaii Air National Guard and the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command. Microgrids increasingly are becoming part of future energy planning for the U.S. Department of Defense and respective military branches.
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