Honda turns to fuel cells to clean up corporate offices

The power station uses eight fuel cell stacks that Honda pulled out of Clarity fuel cell sedans that were marketed between 2016 and 2021. The station is made of two 250-kilowatt modules comprising four fuel cell systems each.

“In addition to zero-carbon emissions, its major advantage over diesel-powered backup generation is that it does not produce local air pollutants and operates at reduced noise levels,” Kaihara said.

Jay Joseph, vice president of American Honda’s CASE & Energy business unit, said the company intends to grow the range of applications that use a fuel cell system, which will stimulate demand for hydrogen.

CASE stands for Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electrified and is tasked with delivering hardware, software and renewable energy solutions such as the fuel cell power station.

In April, CASE & Energy will change its name to Sustainability and Business Development, Joseph said, and will focus more on vehicle recyclability and building new business models around carbon neutral products and services.

The next iteration of Honda’s power station will use a new generation of its fuel cell system and Honda will deploy it at its factories and data centers throughout the U.S., Joseph said.

Development of Honda’s next-gen fuel cell system is part of a collaboration with General Motors. That technology will be produced in Michigan and debut in a Honda CR-V crossover with a target launch date of late 2024. The CR-V fuel cell will be assembled in Ohio.

Honda said working with GM on the technology has reduced the cost of developing the fuel cell and increased its durability and low-temperature resistance.

While Honda focuses on growing its stationary power source business, hydrogen also offers opportunities in commercial vehicle applications.

“Since hydrogen has high energy density and refueling can be done quickly, it’s more suitable for large mobility vehicles with high operating schedules and mobility vehicles that need to be refueled quickly, which remains a challenge for batteries,” Joseph said.

The commercial vehicle market has been the primary target for fuel cell truck startup Nikola Corp. That company envisions creating fleets of heavy-duty hydrogen-powered trucks and their refueling stations.