In April 2024, global energy, technology, and utility provider Hitachi Energy announced a US$1.5 billion investment program to ramp up global transformer production by 2027.
IDTechEx’s research into electrical grids indicates that transformers are a critical component and potential supply bottleneck for large-scale grid upgrades.
These upgrades are essential as society shifts from a transportation sector fuelled by petrochemicals transported in tankers to a sector powered by electricity carried by wires. In their market report, “Off-Grid Charging For Electric Vehicles 2024-2034: Technologies, Benchmarking, Players and Forecasts”, IDTechEx explores the challenges utility grids face amid vehicle electrification.
Restructuring ageing utility grids that were primarily built to distribute energy from centralized coal power plants into systems that can cope with increasing renewable energy generation and electric vehicle adoption is a significant challenge that industry and policy are beginning to take steps to tackle.
The investment from Hitachi Energy involves a new factory in Finland, which should reduce lengthy wait times (currently over two years in the US) for transformers, which are essential in stepping down the high voltage long-distance transmission lines to useable voltages for end customers.
However, some locations and situations will likely always exist beyond the reach of the grid and thus mains electricity. Temporary locations such as construction sites, festivals, or the most rural industrial locations may never be economically or technically viable for expensive grid upgrades.
Instead, they will have to resort to distributed generation for power. The incumbent technology is diesel generators, which are increasingly considered polluting and may soon be banned from inner city construction sites due to air and noise pollution regulations.
Additionally, charging ‘green’ electric construction vehicles from a carbon-intensive diesel generator does not make environmental sense. IDTechEx has researched several proposed options for green on-site power generation, and one technology stands out as a likely candidate for construction and temporary power generation: the hydrogen fuel cell generator.
Repurposing the Fuel Cell for Distributed Generation
Fuel cell technology is not new, and their use was pioneered in early space programs. There has been consistent interest in FCEVs (fuel cell electric vehicles) as a faster refuelling and greater range alternative to BEVs (battery electric vehicles).
However, sales figures suggest that BEVs significantly outperform FCEVs, and IDTechEx expects fully battery electric to emerge as the dominant net-zero drivetrain.
However, there is growing momentum in the fuel cell generator space, which repurposes fuel cell generator technology and utilizes this to generate electricity from hydrogen. Fuel cell generators take in H2, combine it with oxygen from the air, and produce electricity and water with no carbon emissions and much-reduced noise compared with a diesel generator.
Unlike solar/wind integrated systems requiring an on-site battery, fuel cell generators can use stored energy as on-site compressed hydrogen. Scaling up the fuel cell stack can generate large power outputs, charging increasingly large electric construction vehicles or many conventional vehicles. These generators promise clean, non-intermittent, and scalable power.
IDTechEx Research has observed these used in electric construction sites, festivals, remote multi-day electric vehicle races, and even public highway fast charging. Hitachi Energy is one of the latest companies to invest in hydrogen fuel cell generators, an industry IDTechEx predicts will generate over US$14 billion by 2034.
The Challenge Is Affordable and Green Hydrogen
The promise of carbon-free on-site electricity is attractive; however, the entire supply chain must be considered for an accurate emissions assessment and for hydrogen, which involves the method or ‘colour’ of H2.
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