Ports and MicroGrids at the California Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Summit
Plug Power visited the land of sunshine and vineyards to join discussions at the California Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Summit. The event was held at the California Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters in Sacramento, CA September 25-27. This signature event of the California Hydrogen Business Council continues a dialogue between government agencies and businesses to address opportunities and challenges in key environmental, business and market areas. The CHBC’s mission is to advance the commercialization of hydrogen in transportation and stationary sources to reduce emissions and dependence on foreign oil. Plug Power’s participation in the event was twofold: a conference presentation on fuel cells for port applications and a tour of Stone Edge Farms, who uses Plug Power GenSure fuel cells in their microgrid.
Fuel Cells for Mobility: Hydrogen fuel cells for Port applications
Tuesday, September 26th, Fernando Corral, Plug Power’s VP Sales Retail & Distribution, spoke to attendees about the opportunities for hydrogen and fuel cells in port applications.
As the leaders in hydrogen and fuel cells for industrial electric vehicles (forklifts, AGVs, ground support equipment), Plug Power is looking to ports as an area that shares some of the same characteristics with warehouses – captive fleet, high asset utilization, need for productivity and clean operation – while leveraging our experience and capabilities having accumulated more than 135 million run hours on our customers’ forklift fleets and greater than 8 million hydrogen fuelings. Plug Power has the experience, technology, and team necessary to advance into new markets like ports.
Fuel Cells for Stationary: Stone Edge Tour
On Wednesday, September 27th, attendees were invited to a tour of the hydrogen microgrid at Stone Edge Farm, a 16-acre organic winery and farm, located in Sonoma, California. The Stone Edge Farm microgrid is a mile-long power line that connects a network of electrical services and integrates various forms of distributed energy generation (solar, microturbine, hydrogen fuel cells) and storage (batteries and hydrogen) with real time monitoring and control.
Plug Power’s GenSure fuel cells provide up to 26kW of power for Stone Edge’s “critical grid,” which powers their servers, fiber, Ethernet, gates, alarms and security lighting. Hydrogen for the GenSure fuel cells, and for multiple Toyota fuel cell vehicles operated by Stone Edge, is provided by a solar array connected to an electrolyzer. This combination ensures high reliability and uptime, combined with a clean, renewable form of hydrogen generation.
Plug Power was on hand during the tour to speak about the work being done by the GenSure fuel cells, while guests sampled some of Stone Edge Farm’s top-quality wine products.
Thanks to CHBC for coordinating and Stone Edge for hosting this tour, highlighting a real world look at what hydrogen and fuel cells can do in a sustainable microgrid.
Ports and Microgrids: just two of the many real-world uses for Plug Power fuel cells. #InfiniteDrive