The commitment to maximum sustainability has no limits. The brand’s division in the United States is about to inaugurate a mega-hydrogen storage facility with combustion cells. A plant capable of generating up to one megawatt of electricity that will be connected to the Colorado power grid.
Toyota commitment to maximum sustainability in all areas. The division of the brand in the United States has announced the imminent opening of a facility that is unrivaled worldwide. Is about a hydrogen storage facility equipped with a fuel cell generator capable of generating up to 1 megawatt of electrical energy, a plant that will be connected to the electrical grid of Colorado, allowing direct and alternating current to be fed.
This new plant is the result of an agreement between Toyota and the United States Department of Energy, both involved in a project dependent on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The objective is to treat the hydrogen production from renewable sources, including energy storage and production. The facility has a hydrogen storage structure with a 600 kilogram capacityin addition to a water electrolyser and a hydrogen generator, which is made up of hundreds of fuel cell modules.
Toyota bets on the industrial use of fuel cells
All fuel cells are not brand new, but are being reusing and giving a new life after being used in prototypes of FCEV cars, units used as a pilot test laboratory, trucks, buses and even yachts. They have all joined a large fuel cell with a capacity of 1 megawatta project in which a whopping 6.5 million dollars has been invested and in which the next three years are the real key.
Because, in reality, it is a prototype of a large-scale fuel cell, much larger than any form of transport. The experts from the brand and the United States Department of Energy will study its commercial viability and if it achieves its purpose: to achieve the carbon-free hydrogen-based electricity generation for as long as possible. But for Toyota USA’s fuel cell engineering and technology department it also has another objective, as it will demonstrate that the technical approach of its fuel cells allows it to adapt to any type of vehicle and also to industrial facilities.
Daniel Leighton, project leader and researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, this is a unique opportunity in the world, explaining that “We will explore the scalability of fuel cell systems for large-scale stationary power generation to see what Issues can arise with issues like performance, durability, and system integration. Our project also creates new possibilities for testing Toyota fuel cells in a megawatt facility.”