Hydrogen fueling stations where the hydrogen is produced on-site with solar power are not viable; Hydrogen pipelines will be needed to distribute the hydrogen from large solar facilties

(Note: To learn more about hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and their potential to solve the oil crisis, please read the series of articles titled “Twelve Hydrogen Facts” which is part of the Hydrogen Manhattan Project.)

One of the key issues with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is where the hydrogen comes from.  The two most preferable options are to make the hydrogen from solar or wind power.

There are a few prototype hydrogen fueling stations where the hydrogen is produced on-site from solar power.  This has caused some people to believe that locations with high-quality solar resources such as California could simply replicate this model.

Is it viable to have lots of hydrogen fueling stations where the hydrogen is produced on-site from solar power without any more infrastructure requirements?

The answer is no.  The main reason is that the amount of solar panels that could cover a typical fueling station will not produce very much hydrogen.

In early April as part of the National Hydrogen Association (NHA) annual conference in Sacramento, I went on a tour of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) hydrogen fueling station.  It produces hydrogen on-site from solar panels and electrolyzers.  The facility was definitely impressive.

But as shown on page 7 of the Fuel Cell Today NHA 2008 annual conference report, the SMUD hydrogen fueling station only produces 12 kilograms of hydrogen per day.

Furthermore, in order to get an idea of the size of the solar panels at the SMUD hydrogen fueling station, here is a picture of the facility:

As you can see, the solar panels are pretty big.  The bottom line is that not enough hydrogen can be produced from solar panels that would fit on a piece of land the size of a typical fueling station.

And it is not even close.

In Hydrogen Fact #7 where I analyzed the cost of hydrogen from wind power, I mentioned that 388.6 million gallons of gasoline are currently sold in the U.S. each day at 170,000 fueling stations which equals an average of 2286 gallons sold per fueling station each day.

Since a kilogram of hydrogen in a fuel cell will get twice the mileage of a gallon of gasoline in an internal combustion engine, I assumed that each hydrogen fueling station would sell an average of 1500 kilograms per day.

There is obviously a big difference between 12 kilograms and 1500 kilograms per day.

Therefore, hydrogen from solar power will have to be produced at large facilities in places like the Mojave Desert.  Hydrogen pipelines will then distribute the hydrogen close to fueling stations and then tanker trucks will deliver the hydrogen to individual fueling stations.