The three companies have been discussing and preparing for the launch of the demonstration project since June 2023, when this project was proposed to and adopted by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) as one of the projects for the “Development of Technologies for Realizing a Hydrogen Society / Development of Technologies for Regional Hydrogen Utilization.”
In this demonstration project, a stationary FC power station that Honda has developed based on the assumption of reusing fuel cells recovered from FCEVs utilizes by-product hydrogen produced by Tokuyama’s salt water electrolysis business to generate electricity and supply the electricity to a distributed data center operated by MC, at the demonstration site located in Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.
Through this demonstration project, the three companies will explore the potential of reusing automotive FC systems for stationary FC power station applications, and verify the possibility of contributing to 1) a reduction in the economic burden on customers who will install and operate stationary FC power stations and 2) the decarbonization of electric power, through effective use of FC systems, which are expected to see broader adoption in the future.
A further increase in power demand for data centers is expected in the long run due to the advancement of technologies that require large-volume data processing, such as generative AI and automated driving. In the face of this market environment, by utilizing 1) by-product hydrogen, which can be produced/supplied stably with low carbon emissions, and 2) FCs designed to be reused, to supply electricity to distributed data centers, the three companies will strive to contribute to the “green transformation” (GX) of data centers and the digital transformation (DX) of municipalities and local businesses.