United States
Demonstration and Deployment
Hydrogen Demonstration Program Overviews
The United States of America has several active hydrogen fuel cell demonstration projects. These projects strive to demonstrate and validate the technology through real-world usage and data collection to compare progress to national and industrial technical targets:
- Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and Infrastructure Demonstration and Validation Project, also known as the Learning Demonstration (DOE)
- Fuel Cell Bus Evaluations (Department of Transportation/DOE)
- Hydrogen fuel cell forklift demonstration (Department of Defense)
Hydrogen Filling Stations (Nationwide)
- Total of 58 hydrogen filling stations; list available at the U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center.
Hydrogen Vehicles Involved in Demonstration Programs
- 92 fuel cell vehicles
- ~25 ICE vehicles (converted Prius H2ICE vehicles by Quantum, as part of the South Coast Quality Management District's "5-City" Project)
- 13 active fuel cell buses (26 fuel cell buses planned by 2009)
- 21 ICE buses
Stationary Fuel Cells
According to the U.S. Fuel Cell Council, approximately 2,000 stationary fuel cells are installed in the United States.
Demonstrations Involving Other Types of Fuel Cell Applications
The U.S. Department of Defense is conducting a fuel cell forklift demonstration at four defense distribution warehouse sites around the nation. The demonstration involves up to 80 forklift units and hydrogen fueling infrastructure.
Links
DOE Hydrogen Technology Validation Overview
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/tech_validation
DOE/NREL Learning Demonstration Results and Publications
http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/proj_learning_demo.html
DOE/NREL FCB Technology Validation
http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/proj_fc_bus_eval.html
FTA National Fuel Cell Bus Program
http://www.fta.dot.gov/documents/FTA_National_Fuel_Cell_Bus_Program_Projects.doc
AC Transit FCB Program
http://www.actransit.org
SunLine Transit Agency
http://www.sunline.org
Santa Clara VTA
http://www.vta.org/projects/ZEBs.html
University of Delaware FCB
http://www.me.udel.edu/research_groups/prasad/proj/fcbus.html
Additional Information
The U.S. DOT (Federal Transit Administration, FTA) and DOE also support and participate in the International Fuel Cell Bus Workshops. These IPHE-recognized events are held annually in locations rotating among Europe, North America, and Asia. The overall goals are to enhance information sharing on the status of FCB demonstrations worldwide; harmonize data collection and evaluation to maximize possible learnings; and to facilitate coordination and collaboration of research, development, and demonstration of future FCBs. A website is in development to provide general information and data sharing between participants. FTA funds the website and the organization/facilitation of these workshops through its National Fuel Cell Bus Program.
Last updated May 14, 2009