Considering Hydrogen Fuel Cells Powertrain as Power Generation Plant

Every day more than 90% of vehicles are parked, even during peak traffic hours. In this situation, the vehicle power generation system hydrogen fuel cell based (H2FC Powertrain), if properly equipped, could become a new power generation source, supplying electricity to homes and to the grid like a new type of distributed generation: Vehicleto- Grid (V2G). The V2G concept is well known but, in the paper, the H2FC Powertrain is considered as power generation plant and, based only on public data, it is compared with the traditional power generation technologies. The results are surprising. Using only tested H2FC Powertrain data (DOE 2009, referred to projected high volume production) we found that the cost generating baseload electricity would be in a range of USD 179,2 - 196,7 for MWh. Comparing this cost range with the levelised costs of electricity (LCOE) published in the most recent studies, H2FC Powertrain generation would be at lower cost than wind offshore, solar thermal and solar photovoltaic. However, using the 2015 DOE data target the of H2FC Powertrain, electricity production cost range moves to USD 106,6 - 156,6 for MWh, and, in most of the context, it appears competitive with all the power generation technologies.