Environmental Technology Shortlist

RENEWABLE HYDROGEN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

UPS Systems and University of Glamorgan

The University of Glamorgan’s Hydrogen Centre is part of a plan to create a hydrogen economy for Wales, and was the first in the country to use renewable energy sources to produce hydrogen for use in fuel cells. It’s the result of a collaboration between the university and UPS Systems, which provided a 10kW fuel cell along with associated systems, including a bespoke control system, to the centre.

Costing £2.2m, the Hydrogen Centre was funded by the university and a grant from the European Regional Development Fund, and aims to link together intermittent renewables, such as wind and solar, with fuel-cell systems. Evaluating whether hydrogen generation could be a viable energy-storage medium, providing a flow of energy when the sunshine or wind aren’t strong enough to generate power, is a major goal of the centre, but it wouldn’t have been possible without the fuel cell itself.