car manufacturers were pursue the dream of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for decades – who doesn’t want a car that runs on renewable hydrogen and only emits water vapour? But many challenges, from designing cars that can easily take the fuel to setting up reliable hydrogen distribution, have made turning that dream into a reality difficult. But what if you used these fuel cells to set up a remote electric vehicle charging station or replace a traditional gas or diesel generator for a large warehouse? GM is planning this with its HYDROTEC fuel cell technology The company announced this today.
GM
GM’s Mobile Power Generators, or MPGs, are pretty self-explanatory: They would basically allow you to get large amounts of electricity anywhere without burning fossil fuels or expanding a local power grid. It could be useful for concerts, movie sets, or neighborhoods that lose power frequently. (In my town outside of Atlanta, almost everyone owns an inflator to deal with storm-related outages.)
The announcement also makes a lot of sense for GM as it is already rolling out its fuel cell technology Truck transport, Aerospace and railway partner. The company says the MPGs will be able to churn out 60 to 600 kilowatts without generating much noise or heat.
GM plans to unveil an MPG-powered electric vehicle charging station in mid-2022, a project co-funded by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the US Army. Additionally, the California Energy Commission is investigating how MPGs could help provide energy during power outages. GM is also working with Renewable Innovations to build the EMPOWER fast charger, which could enable fast charging of electric vehicles at existing stations without requiring major infrastructure upgrades. To take things to an even more extreme level, there is a major MPG implementation that could power potentially large military camps and high-performance equipment. (And as a bonus, these camps can actually use the water that the MPG ejects.)
While it will likely be years before MPGs can actually be deployed, it’s encouraging to see GM exploring applications for fuel cells outside of cars. Battery-powered electric vehicles have developed so rapidly that hydrogen-powered cars don’t have much of a future (Sorry Toyota). So it’s time to start thinking about how fuel cells could help.
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