www.hartfordbusiness.com
05/24/10
Proton Energy Systems in Wallingford broke ground last week on the first connection of its planned Hydrogen Highway, a network of nine stations stretching from Maine to Miami where
hydrogen cars can be refueled. The Hydrogen Highway spearheads the company's effort to create an East Coast market for cars powered by
hydrogen fuel-cells and, therefore, boosting the need for
Proton Energy Systems's products that create
hydrogen out of water.
Even though these
SunHydro stations will operate at a loss for the conceivable future, the effort is vital to convincing automakers an American market exists for
fuel-cell cars, particularly on the East Coast, said Rob Friedland, Proton president and CEO. "As people get more comfortable with this technology, they will realise it has all the benefits you want from an alternative energy," Friedland said. "It's not as daunting or complicated as some people make it out to be."
Founded in 1996 in Rocky Hill,
Proton Energy Systems is a global leader in
hydrogen energy, holding 68 patents related to
hydrogen generation. The company, now located in Wallingford, has more than 75 employees. As of the 2008 report by the National Hydrogen Association, there were 210
hydrogen-powered cars on the road in the United States, although that number likely has grown to 300 vehicles, said Patrick Serfass, spokesman for the National Hydrogen Association.
The majority of those cars — as well as half of the operational hydrogen fueling stations — are in California, particularly Southern California. The vehicles range from SUVs such as the
Chevy Fuel Cell EV,
Hyundai Tucson FCEV and the
Toyota FCHV-adv to smaller, sportier rides such as the
Mazda RX-8,
Honda FCX Clarity and the
Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL.
All of the
fuel-cell cars in the field are pre-production vehicles and are not available for purchase in the United States. Some are available for lease, such as the
Honda FCX Clarity for $600 month with insurance included. Auto manufacturers are targeting 2015 as the year most of the models will go on sale, Serfass said, but that depends on whether they believe a market exists for the cars. "The auto manufacturers don't want to roll out 100 vehicles; they want to roll out several hundred or thousands," Serfass said.
The joint effort by
SunHydro and
Proton Energy Systems - both companies are owned by entrepreneur Tom Sullivan - to build these stations on the East Coast could drastically change automakers' opinion of this as a viable market for
fuel-cell cars, Serfass said. With the nine
SunHydro stations and other
hydrogen stations scattered in New York and Washington, D.C., owning these alternative-energy cars would be much more convenient. "The auto manufacturers don't want to roll out a vehicle that will be entirely inconvenient for the owner to maintain," Serfass said.
fuel-cell cars are zero emission vehicles that run an electric motor using compressed
hydrogen gas. The only by-product of the systems is water vapour. The only time
CO2 is emitted into the environment is during the creation of the
hydrogen, which typically is accomplished with
natural gas.
All the
SunHydro stations would use
Proton Energy Systems equipment that creates
hydrogen out of water using
solar power, so there are no
CO2 emissions. "Our goal would be to be 100 percent off the grid," said Michael Grey, president of
SunHydro.
Proton Energy Systems expects to be completed with its nine stations by 2012. After the first in Wallingford, next will be one in Braintree, Mass. followed by stations in Maine and Delaware, or perhaps New Jersey.
fuel-cell cars have a range of 200-450 miles, so with the
hydrogen highway stations strategically placed, owners can drive the entire East Coast using the alternative fuel. The cost to fill a
fuel-cell car with
hydrogen is roughly equivalent to filling a car with gasoline, Friedland said. Hydrogen may cost as much as $5 per kilogram, but a kilogram of
hydrogen gets more than twice the mileage of a gallon of gas, so a 5-kilogram
hydrogen car can drive as far as a 12-gallon gasoline vehicle.
The Mercedes Benz B-Class F-CELL gets the equivalent of 71.3 miles per gallon out of its
hydrogen system, according to the Mercedes Benz marketing materials. Central Connecticut already has one
hydrogen fueling station on UTC Power's campus in South Windsor. The station serves the campus'
fuel-cell vehicles and the CTTransit
fuel-cell bus that has served Greater Hartford since 2007. Since opening in 2007 with the help of a $2.9-million Federal Transit Administration grant, the only time the UTC Power station sold fuel to a private customer was in 2008 when the Hydrogen Road Tour drove the East Coast. "CTTransit is expecting to get more (
fuel-cell) buses this year, so the station will continue to be used," said Peg Hashem, spokeswoman for UTC Power.
The automakers plan to roll out their
hydrogen fuel-cell revolves around locations where stations already exist, Serfass said. The first place will be Southern California followed by Northern California. Next will be Washington, D.C. and the greater New York City metropolitan area, which will include Connecticut.
fuel-cell vehicles will be competing in the Connecticut alternative energy car market with the more visible electric vehicles, those cars running on a battery that is recharged by plugging it into an energy source, such as an outlet.
A group of utility companies including Northeast Utilities and United Illuminating have been working with Gov. M. Jodi Rell's Electric Vehicles Infrastructure Council to be prepared for companies such as
General Motors,
Ford and
Nissan to introduce their electric cars into Connecticut next year. Northeast Utilities, which owns Connecticut Light & Power, already has three charging stations in place for electric cars and has been in talks with dozens of communities and customers about installing more, said Watson Collins, Northeast Utilities manager of business development.
An electric car charging station takes as little as a week to get up and running, so infrastructure can balloon quickly and prove to the automakers that Connecticut is a place to sell their cars, Collins said. "We are trying to say the infrastructure is here, and the consumers are here," Collins said. As for the
hydrogen car, the majority of the market so far is outside the United States. More than 60 percent of
hydrogen units sold by
Proton Energy Systems are for foreign use, Friedland said. The company believes this country can have a viable
hydrogen car market, but the manufacturers and the consumers have to be convinced of that.
"Removing
hydrogen as a viable alternative energy option is already a mistake," Friedland said. The Wallingford
hydrogen fueling station is expected to be finished in June, and
Proton Energy Systems will have a showcase at the grand opening with
fuel-cell cars. "The other key to this is education and outreach," Friedland said. "As people see it, they fear it less."
Taiwan and the Czech Republic are taking huge strides in the "green" world by building large-scale solar power plants in Tainan, Taiwan and the South Moravian farming village of Moravsky Zizkov in an effort to reduce CO2 emissions. Taiwan Power Co., a state-run power company, is building a 5MW solar plant to both decrease carbon emissions and reduce their dependence on imported energy needs, which is currently at 99 percent.
