Hydrogen: Emission free resilience

With our demanding industrial customers, we promise high availability and resilient operations. As best it means powering operations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. Keeping that promise is a moving target: That is why we are investigating a small-scale hydrogen fuel cell with the aim of it serving as backup power without the emissions.

Why hydrogen and why now?

Backup power has traditionally meant diesel or in the best case, biodiesel. For customers who want to meet demanding sustainability commitments, that is not the best fit in the long term. That’s why we are helping one of our customers to implement and test hydrogen fuel cell. Although small, it is a significant step towards cleaner future.

A hydrogen fuel cell can change the emission situation in the future. It converts hydrogen back into electricity with water as its only local emission — no combustion, no particulates, no biodiesel deliveries. It can carry critical loads during a grid outage and cover the gaps that even the most resilient distribution network cannot fully rule out. At sites that are designed for high availability, a clean backup solution is a natural next step.

Reduced complexity = Delivery on time and on budget

Aurora Infrastructure’s value proposition is reduced complexity. For new sites, we design, finance and build the electricity infrastructure, and for both new and existing sites, we own and operate the grid — with no capital expenditure for our customers.

The hydrogen fuel cell pilot is an addition to the comprehensive system solution that includes the high and medium voltage electrification, the backup power and the flexibility assets. Our model guarantees that our projects run on time and on budget, and it is what lets us add new technology without adding new complexity for the customer.

Back-up power with competitive and predictable cost

Clean backup power replaces fossil standby capacity with a zero-emission alternative and strengthens local and regional resilience. The same long-term design-finance-build-own-operate agreement that already powers existing grids make everything easy for our customers, while keeping the operating costs competitive and predictable. The back-up assets are also a potential new revenue stream as they can be traded on Fingrid’s reserve markets generating revenue alongside ensuring resilience.

We are proud to innovate with competitive and predictable costs. If you are developing a site where availability, resilience and sustainability are critical, we can help you design, finance, build, own and operate the infrastructure— hydrogen included.

Got interested? If yes, let’s talk!