Dive Brief:
- A first-of-its-kind hydrogen- and battery-powered microgrid project is up and running in the remote California town of Calistoga, according to a Sept. 25 announcement by Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Energy Vault.
- The Calistoga Resiliency Center provides backup power to the town of 1,600 by using hydrogen fuel cells to charge lithium-ion batteries on a site that was too small to allow for wind or solar power generation, the companies said.
- Frank Wolak, president and CEO of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association, said in an interview that interest in hydrogen fuel cells has grown over the past year or two as data centers and other large-load customers seek alternatives to diesel generators.
Dive Insight:
The community of Calistoga has yet to call on the resiliency center as backup, but tests show it can power the town for at least 48 hours, according to Jeremy Donnell, senior manager of microgrid strategy implementation at PG&E.
The company says it believes the hybrid system is the very first of its kind. The 293-MWh microgrid system replaced a diesel generator that PG&E deployed in Calistoga in 2019-2020 to provide backup generation in the event of a public safety power shutoff, Donnell said in an interview.
Developer Energy Vault came up with the hybrid battery/hydrogen fuel cell design in response to PG&E’s request for a solution that could eliminate the diesel generator while occupying the same footprint and for no more than twice the cost…