First solar powered hydrogen plant completed on Hickam

A solar array project worth $1.1 million has been completed on May 8th making it the first for the Airforce Base and also for the state of Hawaii. This solar plant will be used to power the hydrogen production and fuelling station. The 810 solar modules can now produce 146 kilowatts of energy per hour. This is equivalent of powering around 30 standard homes. With the installation of this power plant, it is expected to save an average of $43,000 every year. The amount may not seem big but with the present world being very energy conscious, every little bit counts.

The way it works is very simple. The sunlight hits the photovoltaic panels making the electrons move from front to back creating a current that will be travelling through small wires to a junction box in the back. This junction box then takes the current from the small wires and moves it to the larger wires which then travel to a combiner box and then finally to the inverter. Here the DC is converted to AC current, which runs the base hydrogen station. Now isn’t that cool. Imagine there is no cost in procuring the raw material.


[Pacaf]