Hawaii
Energy Policy Forum > 2003 Articles
State launches drive for fuel-cell money
Prabha Natarajan
Pacific Business News
2003-06-02
State officials are launching a high-energy campaign to capture
a big chunk of the $1.7 billion President Bush proposes to
spend on hydrogen fuel development over the next five years.
And they're confident that Hawaii, with its current hydrogen
fuel-cell research and development base and climatic advantages,
stands a good chance of succeeding.
"The initiative requires sites for demonstration of
these programs," said Maurice Kaya, chief technology
officer for the state Department of Business, Economic Development
and Tourism. "Hawaii's role can be one of the demonstration
sites so we can attract major companies to locate applied
research, testing and development in the state.
"If we succeed, major investments will be attracted
to the state," he said. "Hawaii has been a long-standing
supporter for the development of energy. We feel we are well-positioned
to take advantage of some of the research dollars to develop
the technology."
Gov. Linda Lingle, DBEDT Director Ted Liu and Kaya were scheduled
to meet in Hawaii today with Kyle McSlarrow, U.S. deputy secretary
of energy.
Much of Hawaii's confidence stems from a recent three-year,
$1.5 million grant the state received to develop a hydrogen
park in partnership with a handful of local and mainland private
and public entities.
"It was a major competitive award offered the state
to develop a park with a focus on advancing fuel-cell development
largely from renewable sources of energy," Kaya said.
What is a fuel cell?
The hydrogen economy, which Hawaii and much of the world
is betting on to replace fossil fuels, is based on simple
high school chemistry: 2H2 + O2 => 2H2O + energy.
Hydrogen and oxygen gases combine to form water and release
energy through a reverse electrolysis process. Inside a fuel
cell this energy becomes electrical energy. The electrical
energy can be used to power your fan or run your car.
The fuel cell dates back to 1893 but Hawaii realized its economic
potential about a decade ago as it scoped out alternative
energy resources.
Advantage Hawaii
Hawaii already has built up a critical mass of hydrogen and
fuel-cell research.
Last November, the state began to build out Hawaii Hydrogen
Power Park, a three-phase project with the goal of taking
to market hydrogen-based fuel cells. The project will deploy
and demonstrate an integrated system comprising a way to produce
pure hydrogen, store it and produce energy that can supply
a grid. The goal is to run the whole operation on renewable
energy resources, even the generation of hydrogen through
electrolysis.
Hydrogen used in a fuel cell is generated by the process
of electrolysis, which through the passing of electric current
splits water into oxygen and hydrogen. Instead of using power
for electrolysis, local researchers are working on using excess
renewable energy from wind, geo-thermal and other resources.
"We are in the early stages of an applied-research project,"
Kaya said. "We are doing this demonstration to improve
the efficiency of the process and refine the technology for
a cost-effective process."
Apart from this, a fuel-cell test facility was opened at
Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc.'s Ward Avenue property last month.
The facility houses three test stands and two more are to
be added by the end of the year. The project is a partnership
of the University of Hawaii's Hawaii Natural Energy Institute,
Office of Naval Research, UTC Fuel Cells and Hawaiian Electric.
The facility is expected to help researchers fine-tune the
technology for its commercialization.
A distributed energy research center is being set up at the
institute's campus on the Big Island as a catalyst to attract
investments in testing, application and development of energy
technologies.
Further, Hawaii boasts 13 of the world's 15 climatic zones
allowing researchers a chance to test drive a fuel-cell vehicle
under nearly all conditions. Hawaii's proximity to Asia is
an added plus.
Reality check
Despite building a good case for Hawaii, it remains a tough
sell, Kaya said.
"So far there's been fairly positive interest,"
he said. "We've been able to demonstrate what we have
in place. Realistically, the distance and isolation works
to our disadvantage. People view it as being six time zones
away from the East Coast and 4,000 miles. There's national
interest in the bids as well. But it's not going to be a very
easy process."
Neither Hawaii nor DBEDT has ties to the car companies in
Detroit. But they have until Aug. 14, the deadline for the
first bid submission, to make the connections.
"The state cannot do cold calls and go to Detroit,"
Kaya said. "We have to work largely with partners we've
developed."
Hawaii hopes to work with its Hydrogen Park partners in developing
a competitive bid for the U.S. Department of Energy contracts.
The contracts, for which the Energy Department has begun solicitations,
require energy, auto and fuel-cell companies to be lead bidders.
The University of Hawaii, local utility companies and DBEDT
hope to form a consortium that favors Hawaii as a test site.
"It is much more of a likelihood that UH can play a
stronger role not only in supporting research programs but
also in strategic partnerships created in the industry in
the expectation that we will be able to foster, through the
investments, economic activity of a fairly high caliber relative
to advanced technology," Kaya said.
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