Orange, the telecommunications company, could soon provide the UK’s first hydrogen fuel cell base station.
The company is working with FDT Associates and BOC to develop a site in a forest at a height of 500 metres. This site provides network coverage to the A941 and, without this technology, would require around five kilometres of electricity cabling to receive necessary power.
The 5kW fuel cell from Plug Power runs on hydrogen, with a reserve LPG generator supplied by Harrington Generators. The lack of external power sources means other sites could soon appear in remote places where a shortage of power in the surrounding areas would previously have made it impractical.
This advance should broaden network coverage significantly.
FDT managing director, John Peake, said: “We are conducting the trial using the hydrogen fuel cells as standby power provision but we are already working with Plug Power to bring a fuel cell capable of providing prime power to a site to the UK.”
