The Fuel Cell Mobile Light has been field-tested in a number of interesting locations—highway shoulder work for Caltrans, airfield maintenance operations at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), at Hollywood awards ceremonies like the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and Grammy’s, and at the final Space Shuttle launch in 2011.
The Connecticut Department of Transportation (CT DOT) is now using a Fuel Cell Mobile Light unit to quietly and cleanly illuminate a major interchange construction project, the I-95 New Haven Harbor Crossing Corridor Improvement Program. The Fuel Cell Mobile Light is being deployed to reduce emissions and noise in the work zone and allow CT DOT to gain experience with fuel cells. It also helps promote the development of hydrogen refueling facilities in the area and demonstrates how fuel cells have a broad role in transportation energy.
“This is the first time the Fuel Cell Mobile Light has been used in a major construction project,” says Lennie Klebanoff. “This is the largest federal Interstate Highway construction project in the country, so the Fuel Cell Mobile Light is in the construction big leagues now.”
The concept for the Fuel Cell Mobile Light was developed through a cooperative research and development agreement with Boeing, and subsequently supported by the DOE EERE Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Program Market Transformation activity. The project grew into a consortia that includes technology experts, mass manufacturers, and end users. The consortia recently received a patent for the Fuel Cell Mobile Light. Last year, the Fuel Cell Mobile Light was the winner of the Federal Laboratory Consortium’s Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer. Commercialization of the unit by Multiquip Inc. is planned for early 2014.