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By bringing together hydrogen fuel cells and “waste” hydroelectric power, an innovative project aims to cut diesel consumption.
Bella Coola is a small town about a third of the way up the coast of British Columbia and about 100 kilometres inland. Like many of Canada’s 300-plus remote communities, Bella Coola relies on diesel generators for some of its electricity needs. During winter, the generators run almost continuously.
Bella Coola, British Columbia is the first remote community in Canada to replace part of its diesel power with clean energy from hydrogen fuel cells. What’s more, the fuel cells take advantage of surplus energy from the town’s hydroelectric dam — energy that otherwise would go to waste.
Did you know?
Hydrogen is the simplest and most abundant element in the universe.
While most of the power for this community of 600 comes from a small hydroelectric dam at Clayton Falls, the facility doesn’t generate quite enough for peak periods, or for the heavier needs of local industry, such as a sawmill and fish hatchery. So diesel generators, which emit greenhouse gases, have been used to supplement power during peak times.
At the same time, excess power from the hydroelectric dam was being wasted. Electricity from hydro sources continues to be produced throughout the night (one can’t just shut off a power station), and there is no good way to store that power for future use. “It is lost energy,” says NRC’s Shaohong Wu.
Capturing that “lost” energy and using it to power fuel cells was the goal of the Hydrogen Assisted Renewable Power System (HARP) project. HARP is a joint program spearheaded by BC Hydro, General Electric and Powertech Labs with funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada and B.C.’s Innovative Clean Energy Fund.
Since a hydrogen fuel cell works by converting hydrogen and oxygen into an electrical current, one requirement was finding a steady source of these two elements. (To learn more about how a fuel cell works, see Ask a Scientist.) Hydrogen is easily available from local water sources, while oxygen is abundantly available in the air. (Diesel, on the other hand, has to be trucked in — adding to its environmental footprint.)
Running on “free” energy
The HARP system includes an electrolyzer that generates hydrogen and oxygen from water. The resulting hydrogen is stored until it is needed to power a fuel cell, while the oxygen is released to the air.
In future, wind and solar power could also contribute energy into the HARP system. In such a system, the renewable sources provide most of the community’s power directly (see arrow on right). When renewable power exceeds demand, the HARP electrolyzer uses the excess energy to generate hydrogen. That hydrogen can be stored and used to power fuel cells when energy demands are high, or when power from renewable sources is low.
While the electrolyzers require energy to generate hydrogen, the beauty of the HARP system is that this can happen overnight, when the town’s demand for energy is at its lowest. The system scoops up excess energy from the hydroelectric dam. “It’s essentially free energy,” Wu says.
Hydrogen is stored as compressed gas until needed.
In the current pilot-scale project, the hydroelectric facility and HARP together generate about 2.2 megawatts of energy — enough for about 1,000 homes. HARP alone contributes about 100 kilowatts, says Karim Kassam, Director of Business and Corporate Development of Ballard Power Systems, which designed and manufactured the fuel cells. In future, wind and solar power could also contribute energy into the overall system.
As the first remote community in Canada to produce power using clean technology, Bella Coola is proof that this approach could work. “There are about 3,000 to 4,000 such remote communities around the world where you could literally replace the diesel generators with zero emission hydrogen fuel cell systems,” says Kassam. In the long-term, more remote communities in Canada will likely replace diesel with hydrogen. 
Laying the groundwork
A new idea like replacing a town’s diesel with fuel cells takes planning. When work began, there were questions about how well fuel cells would perform in meeting the demand, how much energy was needed, and more.
“We did an analysis and created computer models based on the historical power generation data relating to power use patterns in Bella Coola,” says Shaohong Wu, whose group at the NRC Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation helped to lay the groundwork for the project.
“We proposed four HARP technology options based on the feasibility study and economic analysis, and the project moved on to Phase 2 run by the other partners.”
