Integrated Renewable Hydrogen Utility System

This paper describes the plans for a Phase II program recently awarded to Proton Energy Systems, Inc. (Proton) under cooperative agreement DE-FC36-98GO10341 with the Golden Field Office of the Department of Energy (DOE). The ultimate goal of this project is to enable the link to sustainability by converting excess renewable power into hydrogen and having that hydrogen available for conversion back to power, on demand. Furthermore, the cost of this capability must be less than $1000 per kW and allow for a variety of renewable inputs. Since the inception of the program on April 15, 1998, Proton has successfully demonstrated a fully functioning integrated renewable hydrogen utility system. The system, installed at Arizona Public Service (APS) in Tempe, AZ couples a solar concentrating dish, an external combustion engine and a Proton HOGEN 300 hydrogen generator. The system was installed and operating from May of 1999 through the end of the Phase I program in December of 1999. A description of the technical performance of the system and a market assessment is detailed in the Final Technical Report . Approach The Phase I demonstration efforts and market evaluation has shown that a hydrogen generator coupled with some form of renewable power and some form of energy conversion device has a distinct advantage over a battery system backing up the same renewable application. Proton cannot determine which renewable technology will win out in the end, nor predict which energy conversion device will be the most cost effective. However, it is clear that the link to these