Hydrogen and the Growth Dilemma

摘要

For New Zealand, an Island nation with limited petrochemical reserves, the issue of energyrnsecurity will continue to grow in importance as global oil production peaks around 2016. Thisrndilemma has been underlined recently with the release of the most recent assessment of the Mauirngas field. Other challenges for energy supply are also emerging; grid capacity constraint; right ofrnsupply post 2013; and growing environmental concerns over the increasing use of fossil energy.rnA greater understanding of emerging technologies for distributed generation along with new andrnmore flexible energy storage and supply options are needed to meet these challenges.rnInternationally there has been a steadily increasing interest in the use of hydrogen as an energyrncarrier. This paper describes work undertaken in a New Zealand research project to develop andrnsupply a demonstration fuel cell based remote area power supply (RAPS) system to thernAustralian Cooperative Research Centre for Renewable Energy (ACRE). These projects havernfocused on the distributed renewable energy market in the Australian context. This workrnculminated in the delivery of a 6.6 kW proof-of-concept alkaline fuel cell (AFC) system tornACRE’s headquarters in Perth, Western Australia.rnThis paper will provide a detailed account of the ACRE system development and its operationalrnperformance including real world data. There will also be a section on the lessons learned fromrnthe project and the implications for distributed generation systems intended for the New Zealandrnoperating environment. Many of these flow on from the regulatory issues identified in a paperrnpresented last year and have yet to be addressed by the relevant standards authorities.