SMUD to officially open solar-powered fueling station
By Bill Lindelof - blindelof@sacbee.com
Published 7:06 am PDT Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District will formally open a solar-powered hydrogen fueling station for fuel-cell vehicles Tuesday near its headquarters on S Street.
The station, a joint venture of SMUD, BP, Ford Motor Company and the U.S. Department of Energy, is designed to demonstrate fuel cell electric vehicles and the generation of hydrogen from alternative resources.
The station produces hydrogen using power from the large solar panels. The solar panels make electricity, an "electrolyzer" uses that energy to separate water into hydrogen to make clean fuel for the vehicles.
The hydrogen will be used in SMUD's own fuel-cell vehicles and similar vehicles owned by others.
The solar panels produce 80 kilowatts of electricity, equivalent to what is needed to power about 40 single-family homes, or enough hydrogen for about 14 fuel-cell vehicles.
