A new solar array at The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) campus will soon provide enough electricity to generate hydrogen for its small fleet of fuel-cell electric vehicles and provide clean electricity to the grid during peak power demands.
The PV array delivers 80 kilowatts of power – enough to provide electricity for about 40 single-family homes or provide hydrogen for about 14 fuel-cell vehicles. Construction on the hydrogen fueling station will be done by the end of the year. Until then, the solar power generated by the panels will feed into the SMUD grid.
Designed as a demonstration project, the solar-powered fueling station will fuel the seven fuel-cell electric vehicles that SMUD is testing in a partnership with BP, Ford and Daimler-Chrysler. As the solar panels make electricity, an electrolyzer at the station will use that energy to separate water into hydrogen to make clean fuel for the vehicles.
For almost 20 years, SMUD has been at the forefront of testing and adapting alternative fuel vehicles to District business. In addition to the fuel-cell vehicles, SMUD is also testing battery electric vehicles and a plug-in hybrid vehicle that gets 100 miles per gallon.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) honored the utility yesterday by selecting it for the 2007 Wind Power Pioneer Award.
SMUD has developed wind power since 1993 when the municipal utility launched the 5-MW Solano wind project. Gathering data from the first turbines, SMUD replaced older units and added more powerful ones, like the Vestas V-90 3-MW model, as they became available. The project now generates 39 MW, with an additional 63 MW planned for 2008, putting SMUD on track to achieve its ambitious goal of a 20% renewable energy portfolio by 2011.
To protect its investment in state-of-the-art turbines, SMUD worked with Vestas to develop the first five-year, full-service operation and maintenance agreement in the United States, guaranteed by the manufacturer. To further mitigate the risk, SMUD split the Phase 2 project development contract, installing 24 MW in 2006 and scheduling 63 MW for 2008.
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