APC 400kW1MW User Manual download pdf (Page 57)

cell market will grow and subsequently support the development of stationary fuel cells [12, p.

20 -21].

Currently, the hydrogen infrastructure is very limited in the US. According to data on the

FuelCells.org website, presently there are 82 hydrogen filling stations for fuel cell cars in the US

[82]. There are approximately 170,000 gasoline fueling stations in the US. In order to make

fuel cell vehicles more widely accepted, an increase in hydrogen fueling stations is needed.

However, the cost of expanding the hydrogen infrastructure for fuel cell vehicle use will not be

cheap. HowStuffWorks.com predicts that the government will need to spend $500 billion to

expand the infrastructure [83]. Greg Blencoe, CEO of Hydrogen Discoveries, Inc., estimates a

total cost of $405 billion. This estimation includes building one hydrogen fueling station for

every gasoline fueling station. Blencoe approximates the average cost per hydrogen fueling

station to be $1.5 million. The polymer hydrogen pipelines to supply the hydrogen to these

stations would cost around $500,000 per mile [84, para 3-5].

The Hydrogen Fuel Initiative (HFI) is supportive of the automotive industry’s efforts to

manufacture fuel cell vehicles. The HFI began in 2003 as an effort to develop hydrogen, fuels,

and infrastructure technologies in order to make fuel cell vehicles practical and cost effective by

the year 2020. As of 2008, the US has spent more than one billion dollars on fuel cell research

and development in response to the HFI [48, p. 137].

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed by President Obama on February

, 2009 is also supportive of the use of fuel cell vehicles. A total of $300 million establishes a

grant program through the DOE Clean Cities program. There will be 30 grants awarded for

projects researching emerging vehicle technologies, such as fuel cells [85, para 11]. This act

also supports hydrogen fueling stations. The tax incentive for hydrogen fueling stations will be

30%, or up to $200,000, until January 1, 2011. The tax incentive was previously capped at

$30,000 [86, p. 2]. Refer to Appendix C for additional “Fuel Cell Items in the American

Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009” [86, p. 1-2].

In addition to increasing production levels, the high initial cost of fuel cells could be

reduced with engineering advancements. Shipley et al. recommends that electrical densities

need to increase in order for installation costs to be more competitive with current power

generation technologies [12, p. 17]. The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC)

website suggests several other engineering advancements that would cause fuel cell systems to

be more widely accepted. MTC recommends engineers focus on making fuel cell systems

smaller, weigh less, and less sensitive to fuel impurities. In addition, MTC says that fuel cell

system components, such as the fuel cell stack, need to be developed to have a longer lifespan

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APC 400kW1MW User Manual Page 57