SoCalGas assembles H2 Hydrogen Home

Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) has kicked off the assembly of its H2 Hydrogen Home in Downey, a state-of-the-art demonstration project designed to show the resiliency and reliability of a hydrogen microgrid.

The company took delivery of the modular, prefabricated H2 Hydrogen Home. The home will act as a miniature microgrid – storing and providing resilient, low-carbon power when energy is needed – and demonstrate how such an energy system could be constructed on a larger scale to power residential neighbourhoods and businesses.

The H2 Hydrogen Home features a nearly 2,000 square-foot home, solar panels, a battery, an electrolyzer to convert solar energy to hydrogen and a fuel cell to supply electricity for the home. Hydrogen will also be blended up to 20% with natural gas and used in the home’s tank-less water heater, clothes dryer, gas stove, fireplace and BBQ grill.

The home will function and feel exactly like a regular home but use reliable and clean energy by using power from solar panels and converting excess energy into clean hydrogen, which can be stored and then converted back into electricity with an on-site hydrogen fuel cell when needed. The home is also being constructed to LEED Platinum standards.

The materials for the home were delivered by clean Class 8 trucks powered by hydrogen and electric power supply systems. The featured participants included two Hyundai XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks, part of a California Air Resources Board (CARB) and California Energy Commission (CEC) project called “NorCal ZERO” and two Kenworth T680s equipped with the Toyota fuel cell electric system, which are demonstrated as part of the CARB Port of Los Angeles “Shore to Store” (S2S) project.