Toshiba produced an Independent Energy Supply System with no CO2 emissions that requires only hydrogen and electricity from a renewable energy source to work.
The new system is called H2One and Toshiba already installed one at the Kawasaki Marien public facility and at the Higashi-Ogishima-Naka Park in the Kawasaki Port area.
H2One is the first hydrogen-fueled energy supply system that contains a few solar PV panels to provide clean electricity, storage batteries, an equipment that produces hydrogen through water electrolysis, two tanks one for hydrogen and the other for water and fuel cells.
The system works like this, the green electricity generated from the solar PV installations is used to produce hydrogen through water electrolysis, the hydrogen is then stored in tanks and used in fuel cells to produce electricity and hot water.
H2One needs only water and sunlight in order to produce clean electricity and hot water, so it can be used in many places as an independent energy source in case of emergencies, in case of disasters, in evacuation areas and so on.
The system is mounted inside a container for easy transport on a trailer and is able to provide with electricity and hot water about 300 people for a period of one week.
For everyday use, the H2One system can be used to help the electrical grid in peak moments when the demand for electricity is very high because is able to reduce the demand by using the optimized control of hydrogen production, the power generation capacity and the storage facility.
The H2One system is able to produce 1 cubic meter of hydrogen per hour, can store 33 cubic meters of hydrogen, can supply 75 liters of warm water per hour, the PV system produces 30 kW of clean electricity. the fuel cell capacity is maximum 3.5 kW, and the electricity storage facility can store up to 350 kWh.
Toshiba is working now to enhance this independent energy supply system in order to achieve a self-contained solution that will be able to use local energy production for local consumption.