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    Honda installing Stationary Fuel Cell test station to power Data Center on California campus

    March 16, 2022
    Honda envisons fuel cell technology, which can utilize zero-carbon hydrogen, as a zero-emission backup power resource for data centers and other mission critical sites
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    Automaker Honda is placing an early wager on stationary fuel cell power for facilities such as data centers.

    To test this, the company is planning to install a stationary fuel cell station on its corporate U.S. campus in Torrance, California. The station could be operational by early 2023.

    Honda envisons fuel cell technology, which can utilize zero-carbon hydrogen, as a zero-emission backup power resource for data centers and other mission critical sites. Most of these currently use diesel or natural gas-fired backup generators.

    "We will leverage the expertise Honda has established in creating multiple generations of fuel cell systems for the development of a fuel cell power generation station," said Mitsuru Kariya, senior vice president in charge of the R&D Business Unit of American Honda. "This project is an opportunity to further utilize our strengths in fuel cell technology to more quickly create, assess and advance a clean power generation system for potential commercial customers."

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    Honda's proof of concept fuel cell power station will utilize fuel cell components from Honda Clarity Fuel Cell vehicles in a flexible, four-quad parallel stationary fuel cell power generation system capable of generating up to 1,152 kW-DC/1 MW-AC from an inverter.

    The station will be connected to the data center on the American Honda campus in early 2023, providing a real-world power generation application to verify performance.

    Honda says it remains committed to developing fuel cell systems for passenger vehicles and larger trucks and transport ships. That market is expanding rapidly, the company says, and could grow to more than $86 billion annually by the end of the decade.

    Yet data centers currently consume close to 70 billion kWh of electricity annually in the U.S. alone. Companies in that realm such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Iron Mountain and others are committing themselves to net zero goals also over the coming decades.

    Honda has been producing fuel cell vehicles since the turn of the 21st century.

    Hydrogen itself does not contain carbon to emit. To be truly green hydrogen, it must be produced by electrolysis powered by zero carbon resources such as wind, solar or nuclear. 

    Companies such as Caterpillar also are working on fuel-cell backup power systems which could supply data centers.

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    (Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 14-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can reached at [email protected]).

    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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