Home / Uses / Backup power for a highway roadhouse

The only lights for a hundred kilometres

Remote roadhouses carry travellers, truckies and tourists through long empty stretches. When their power fails, so does a vital stop. This page looks at which loads a 15 kW system could hold.

What travellers need when they pull in

A roadhouse in an outage still has cars arriving. They need toilets that flush, which means a water pump. They need a hot coffee and a pie, which means the espresso machine and pie warmer. They need cold drinks from the display fridges, light to see by, and a way to pay. Each of those is a modest load, and together they fit a 15 kW system with some room to spare.

What it would keep running

Display fridges and freezers
Espresso machine and pie warmer
Water pump for toilets and showers
Point of sale and EFTPOS
Forecourt canopy and shop lighting

Fuel pumps are a separate question

Dispensers themselves are not a big load, but forecourts are hazardous areas with strict siting rules for any electrical equipment. The system is designed to AS/NZS 60079, the standard for explosive atmospheres, yet where it sits and what it may feed would be decided with the fuel supplier and a qualified installer.

The shop, the toilets and the kitchen are the simpler win, and that is where the pilot would start. A roadhouse that can still sell food and water, open its toilets and offer a lit car park is doing most of its job for stranded travellers, even with the pumps off.

How it works →

The H2OME loop: an electrolyser splits water into hydrogen, the hydrogen is stored in a tank for weeks, a fuel cell turns it into electricity for your home, and the water returns to the loop.

Remote sites, wind and long holds

Some roadhouses are off the grid or at the very end of it. The system can charge from a wind turbine and store surplus as hydrogen that keeps for weeks without losing charge. That is different from diesel deliveries arriving by truck. Round trip is 30% or less, so the energy is not cheap, but it does not need a fuel tanker to keep the lights on.

Questions

Can it power the fuel pumps?

The dispensers are a small load, but forecourt wiring falls under hazardous area rules. Whether it feeds the pumps, and how it is sited, would be decided with the fuel supplier and a certified installer during the pilot, not assumed.

What about the truck driver showers?

Water pumps are easy. Electric storage hot water is a bigger draw but usually fits if it is not running alongside a full commercial kitchen. The pilot would sort the order in which loads come on.

Does it handle the heat of an outback summer?

The system would be sited in a shaded, ventilated enclosure. How it performs in very high ambient temperatures is one of the things the bench demo and pilot sites are designed to test, and we will not claim results before then.

Elsewhere

Every use →

Join the pilot list

Pilot installs go to people on this list first. Rural homes, farms and remote sites especially. No spam, no payment.