Hawaii taps hydrogen in quest to go off the grid

From the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Oahu, you can see palm trees, a wide open sky and a clear blue inlet of water. It’s warm, it’s pleasant — it’s friggin’ Hawaii. But set against the beachy vibe are an airfield, pockmarked buildings still bearing the scars of 1941 and … a small hydrogen fuel cell that makes, dehumidifies, compresses, stores and dispenses hydrogen to a few converted buses, Ford vans and Mack trucks, all used by the military.

The guy showing off the setup is retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Stan Osserman, the recently appointed hydrogen czar — and director of the Hawaii Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies (HCATT) — on the island. He’s an evangelist for the unloved and still-slightly-obscure renewable source, lobbying for H2 to play a serious role in edging out traditional energy, from gas in transit to the grid. “We really do have grid stability problems,” he says, declaring it’s time for a real “paradigm shift.” That seems to be the sense in the salty-smelling air here in the islands, where hydrogen is increasingly discussed as a viable source of alternative energy … maybe even, if Osserman types have their way, as a route to going off-grid entirely.

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