The U.S. Army has installed a PEM fuel cell from Plug Power in the Schofield Barracks Fire Station, at the U.S. Army Garrison in Hawaii.
About the size of two refrigerators and just as quiet, the fuel cell makes enough power and hot water for a large family residence.
Up to 5 kilowatts of electricity is produced by the fuel cell and fed into the Schofield electrical distribution system.
In the event of a power outage, the fuel cell disconnects from the system and dedicates power to life safety circuits in the fire station. The transfer is instantaneous and transparent to the fire station.
As we’ve noted before, stationary fuel cells may have a more immediate future than fuel cells in automotive applications. Stationary applications easily get around the storage and size issues and often contain their own hydrogen generation capabilities as well.
via physorg.com
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