Home / Uses / Can hydrogen power sports club floodlights?

Floodlights, clubrooms and the honest limit

Rural sports clubs train under lights through winter. This page is honest: full match lighting usually draws more than 15 kW, but the clubrooms and training lights are a different story.

Match lighting is usually too big

A full set of floodlights for a rugby or football field, especially older metal halide lights, can draw far more than 15 kW. Being honest about that is the starting point. One system would not run full match lighting. Some clubs have moved to LED floodlights, which draw much less, and a partial training setup on LED may fit within 15 kW. The pilot would measure the club's actual lights.

What it would keep running

LED training lights within size
Clubroom bar fridges
After-match kitchen
Changing room hot water
Scoreboard and lighting

Clubrooms are a natural fit

Away from the field, the clubrooms run a bar with fridges, a kitchen for after-match food, hot showers in the changing rooms, lighting and a scoreboard. Those loads together fit well within 15 kW, with hot water rotated around peak use.

In a district outage, rural clubrooms often become a community gathering place, with a kitchen, toilets, showers and space for many people. A system that keeps those running is genuinely useful beyond sport, and that is often the stronger case for a club to make when seeking community funding.

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.

Paying for it honestly

The system charges on off-peak power and holds hydrogen at 30 bar or less for weeks. Round trip efficiency is 30% or less, so running training lights from stored hydrogen every night would cost more than running them from the grid. It suits backup and community resilience, not replacing everyday power for lights.

Questions

Can it light a full field for a night match?

Usually not. Full match floodlighting often draws far more than 15 kW, especially older lights. A larger, multi-unit setup sized in the pilot might work, or it may not be a fit. LED training lights on part of a field are more realistic.

Should a club run its lights from it every night?

No. Round trip efficiency is 30% or less, so nightly use would cost much more than grid power. The system makes sense as backup and as part of the clubrooms' role as a community hub in outages.

Could it keep the showers hot?

Electric hot water fits within 15 kW, especially if cylinders are heated in rotation rather than all at once. The pilot would schedule hot water around other clubroom loads during an outage.

Elsewhere

Every use →

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