Bridging the Gap Between Transportation and Stationary Power:Hydrogen Energy Stations and their Implications for theTransportation Sector

摘要

In the past two years, the Federal and California State governments have announced initiatives torninvest in the development of hydrogen fueling infrastructure for hydrogen vehicles (1,2). Industryrnand government are now working together to determine cost-effective strategies for accomplishingrnthis task. Key concerns are 1) high hydrogen cost, 2) equipment under-utilization while vehiclerndemand is low, and 3) high fuel cell costs when production volumes are low. A new infrastructurernoption is emerging (in the RD&D phase) that addresses these concerns by combining stationary powerrnproduction with vehicle fueling. This new option of “energy stations” (E-Stations) could havernsignificant implications for traditional fueling paradigms since these stations link vehicle-fuelingrnfacilities to stationary power production sites.rnThis paper explores the potential use of E-Stations for hydrogen infrastructure developmentrnand potential implications for the transportation sector. It characterizes the range of E-Station designrnconfigurations and identifies promising applications for each configuration. The applications arernmatched with E-Station attributes to assess the market potential of the stations. The paper explores thernimplications that this new fueling paradigm may have on key stakeholders in the transportation sector.rnIt concludes by identifying issues and areas of uncertainty critical to E-Station success. Thoughrnfurther analysis is needed to assess the economics of various station designs and settings, we find thatrnthe emerging trend in small-scale distributed power generation may increase hydrogen’s probabilityrnof success as a transportation fuel.