Tri-Generation at Big Box Stores and Warehouses

Abstract

Building hydrogen fueling stations for fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) will be challenging initially, before there are enough FCEVs on the road to make these fueling stations profitable. One solution to overcome this “chicken and egg” dilemma is to build distributed generation stations at big box stores or warehouses that supply three fuels: hydrogen, electricity and heat. These “Tri-Gen” stations can be profitable without any FCEVs in the neighborhood primarily by providing electricity and to the stores (heat revenues are minimal), thereby cutting fuel costs to pay for the station. Some stores and warehouses have also converted from battery-powered forklift trucks to fuel cell trucks powered by hydrogen. These forklift trucks consume more hydrogen than FCEVs, providing another source of income to early Tri-Gen stations. Many tens of warehouses already have enough fuel cell lift trucks to make Tri-Gen stations profitable; we do not have to wait for large-scale FCEV sales to begin large scale production of Tri-Gen stations. And even if building Tri-Gen stations at remote warehouses with fuel cell fork lift trucks are not close to clusters of early FCEVs, these warehouse Tri-Gen stations will reduce the cost of station components by increasing production volumes and traveling down the cost “learning curve” as more systems are built, enhancing the economics of Tri-Gen stations in metropolitan areas with more FCEVs. In addition, hydrogen produced profitably at remote warehouses with fuel cell forklift trucks can be shipped to satellite hydrogen fueling stations near large concentrations of FCEVs