H2OME

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Runway lights ready for the night flight

Rural airstrips serve top dressing, private flying and, sometimes, emergency medical flights after dark. This page looks at keeping their lights, radios and hangar running in an outage.

What an airstrip needs to keep

A rural strip with night lighting runs edge lights, a lit windsock, a radio, and sometimes pilot-activated lighting control. Add a hangar with doors, a workshop and an office, and the load is still modest, well within 15 kW. The instant UPS switch-over matters: lights must be available the moment they are needed, not after someone drives out to start a generator.

What it would keep running

  • Runway edge lights
  • Lit windsock
  • Airstrip radio
  • Hangar doors and workshop
  • Office and weather display

Aviation rules come first

Airstrip lighting and radio equipment are subject to aviation rules, and any change to how they are powered would need to follow them. The system is designed to AS/NZS 60079 and ISO 19880 for hydrogen safety, but that is not the same as aviation approval. The airstrip's operator and the relevant authority would decide what it may power.

Hydrogen storage would sit well clear of the runway, taxiway and fuel storage, in a ventilated enclosure, and its placement would be planned with the operator and the installer from the start, so that nothing about it sits in an approach path, obstructs a pilot's view or creates a hazard for aircraft taxiing past.

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.

Standby for weeks

Night flights at a rural strip may be rare, but they matter enormously when they happen. Hydrogen stored at 30 bar or less keeps for weeks without losing charge, so the system can sit ready for long periods. It charges on off-peak power, wind or micro-hydro. Round trip is 30% or less, so it is standby, not cheaper power.

Questions

Is it approved for aviation use?

No approval is claimed. It is designed to AS/NZS 60079 and ISO 19880 for hydrogen safety. Any use for runway lighting would need to meet aviation rules and be decided by the airstrip operator with the relevant authority.

Can it power a fuel bowser at the strip?

Aviation fuel storage has its own hazardous area rules. Whether the system feeds a bowser, and how it is sited, would be decided with the fuel supplier and a certified installer, never assumed.

Does it need to be started for a flight?

No. The battery and inverter run as a UPS, so lights and radios are ready the instant they are needed, and the fuel cell runs from stored hydrogen automatically. Nobody has to drive out to the strip in a storm to start anything.

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