A state-owned electric and water utility and a research center launched a South Carolina installation to advance generation of hydrogen to power fuel cells on forklifts and other vehicles.

"We already have fuel cell forklifts operating on a daily basis in Aiken County," Fred Humes says. "This solar-to-hydrogen technology may well give our industries an independent source of hydrogen to fuel their forklifts, give NetZero homes a way to store excess energy generated by their solar panels and, one day, could lead to independent hydrogen fueling stations for vehicles."

Humes directs the Aiken Edgefield Economic Development Partnership and the Aiken County-built Center for Hydrogen Research, which is collocated with the US Department of Energy's Savannah River National Laboratory.

The utility is the South Carolina Public Service Authority of Moncks Corner, South Carolina, which operates as Santee Cooper and donated USD230,000 for the project. Santee Cooper and the centre dedicated a 20-kilowatt solar panel on 15 May to enable the facility to research applications of hydrogen as a storage solution for solar energy.

Santee Cooper's Green Power program funded the donation. The centre purchased a photovoltaic array that converts sunlight into electricity for production of hydrogen through electrolysing water. Hydrogen can be converted back to electricity using fuel cells or used to power hydrogen-fueled vehicles.