Uno-X Hydrogen to build 1st hydrogen refueling station w/ hydrogen produced by surplus renewable energy from neighboring building
04 April 2016
Uno-X Hydrogen AS, a NEL ASA (NEL) joint venture, will build a hydrogen refueling station (HRS) with on-site hydrogen production co-located with Powerhouse Kjørbo, an energy-positive office building in Sandvika, Norway.
Powerhouse Kjørbo, which is owned by Entra ASA, uses solar panels that can supply upward of 200,000 kWh each year, twice the amount of the building’s annual energy consumption. Excess electricity from solar will be used to produce the hydrogen on-site.
NEL ASA (NEL) through its subsidiaries, NEL Hydrogen AS and H2 Logic A/S, has been awarded a contract of approximately NOK 25 million (US$3 million) for the delivery of the hydrogen refueling station with integrated on-site hydrogen production to Uno-X Hydrogen AS this year.
NEL ASA has extensive competence in designing hydrogen energy systems and refueling stations, through Norsk Hydro, Statoil and H2 Logic, including more than 500 large-scale electrolyzers in more than 50 countries and 28 hydrogen refueling stations delivered to 7 countries.
Uno-X Hydrogen wishes to contribute to the green shift within the transport sector by providing renewable, zero-emission hydrogen fuel to our customers. This hydrogen refueling station marks the start of our planned network of minimum 20 stations in Norway by 2020 and enabling all Norwegians to have the option to choose a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle as their next car.
—Roger Hertzenberg, CEO of Uno-X Hydrogen AS
Kjørbo is centrally located in Sandvika outside of Oslo, by two of the busiest roads in Norway with 80,000 cars passing daily. The project has a total budget of NOK 28.4 million (US$3.4 million), of which NOK 5.7 million (US$690,000) is support from the Akershus County Council and NOK 7.7 million (US$930,000) is from the Norwegian public enterprise, Enova, responsible for the promotion of environmentally friendly production and consumption of energy. Other project partners include consulting firm Asplan Viak and Bærum Municipality.
Yet another project which gives the lie to claims that fuel cells and hydrogen are fossil fuels by another name.
Not in Norway they aren't.
And before commentary that it would be more efficient to charge directly from solar, it ain't very sunny in Norway in winter.
It needs to be stored.
That is where hydrogen comes in.
Posted by: Davemart | 04 April 2016 at 01:13 AM
More waste of tax payers’ money. Toyota can and should pay for their own pet projects.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 04 April 2016 at 01:49 AM
Henrik:
Arguably the waste is in subsidising the wealthy via tax breaks to buy Tesla's.
Posted by: Davemart | 04 April 2016 at 03:23 AM
OMG you are so blue eyed. You think the poor will drive FCV that cost more to buy, that cost way more to fuel per mile and that are far less durable than BEVs. Let us see how many poor people who buy the Miray economy box at 65k USD and les us see how many poor, middleclass and wealthy that will drive Tesla’s driverless BEV taxis starting in 2020 or about the same time Toyota and other industry dinosaurs will launch volume production of FCV and fail blatantly shortly thereafter.
Also Tesla with 300k preorders for model 3 and other accumulated sales is already out of tax credits that Tesla owners otherwise rightfully deserve for saving the society from polluting and dangerous cars as well as being patriotic for not buying oil from the petro dictators and spending their money on a US build car instead of an imported car. Hydrogen cars are a mad man’s project. Aren’t goanna happen.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 04 April 2016 at 04:13 AM
Not so sure that majors will fail with FCEV's production. On the contrary, FCEVs price will fall drastically after 2020 or so and so will H2 price, specially H2 made with surplus REs and stored in SS lower pressure tanks and transported in pipelines.
FCs will not cost more than equivalent diesel/gasoline ICEs, will be smaller and lighter, will eventually last longer, be more efficient and much more cleaner to operate?
FCEVs operation cost may be higher were fossil fuels are very cheap (below $6 to $7/gallon) but not so where fossil fuels cost over $7/gallon.
BEVs operation cost may be lower where electricity is cheap (below $0.20/kWh) due to higher current efficiency but not so where electric cost over $0,30/kWh and when FCEVs efficiency approaches BEVs.
Post 2020 FCEVs will compete with extended range (TESLA Moel S120D and S140D) and equivalent in both initial price and on-going operation cost.
Posted by: HarveyD | 04 April 2016 at 07:54 AM
Hydrogen has no practical purpose for energy storage in Norway. With an annual production of more than 140TWh of hydro, it is no problem to balance the power grid. For that reason its just a big waste of energy to produce hydrogen.
However there are some people who belive that it is wise to invest in hydrogen production, since electric power is cheep and hydrogen is expensive. With a price of 90 NOK (10,8$) for 1 kg of hydrogen, you can easily get a profit when you invest 65KWh of cheep electric, which will cost about 30 NOK (3,6$). And if you can get the goverment to take a good share of the investment costs it will be even better.
Posted by: EHE | 04 April 2016 at 09:58 AM
For all you lithium ion battery fans out there be careful what you wish for it could be worse than the disease.
http://phys.org/news/2016-02-electric-car-battery-materials-key-soil.html
Turns out latest research shows compounds used in your darling lithium-ion batteries are toxic to a type of soil-dwelling bacteria that plays an important environmental role.
Posted by: Mannstein | 04 April 2016 at 10:54 AM
Think your lithium ion batteries will save the environment? Think again.
http://phys.org/news/2016-02-lithium-battery-catalyst-key-soil.html
Posted by: Mannstein | 04 April 2016 at 11:12 AM
@Mannstein No different than lead or cadmium that we have been using in batteries for decades. We just need to control the waste, like anything else.
Posted by: EStorageGuy | 06 April 2016 at 05:28 AM
Clean recycling of XXXB lithium cells (and lithium mines residues) is a future problem that governments will have to solve.
It cannot be left to industry to do because it is not very or profitable enough!
Look at what is happening with plastic bottles as a typical example?
Posted by: HarveyD | 06 April 2016 at 06:38 AM