Canadian Pacific’s southern merger puts zero-carb freight in easy reach by guest blogger Stan Thompson Canadian Pacific Railway has throttled-up the transition to zero-carbon freight movement by two big notches recently. Last December, 2020, CPR announced “that it plans to develop North America’s first line-haul hydrogen-powered locomotive.” Then in March, 2021, they announced a combination with • Read More »
Archives: Political Issues
Hydrogen: lighting the path to liberty
July 26, 2020 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrogen: lighting the path to liberty | Filed in: Advocates, Green Hydrogen, History, Hydrogen Economy, Infrastructure, Political Issues.by guest blogger Stan Thompson Very different processes distribute the earth’s mineral wealth and the political configurations of its surface. Though different, they coincide in ways that profoundly impact our destinies. In the late industrial period, the relative value of energy has been so high, and energy extraction as oil and gas has been so • Read More »
“Why Nations Fail” — A great read with an H2 epilog
July 16, 2020 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on “Why Nations Fail” — A great read with an H2 epilog | Filed in: Advocates, Green Hydrogen, History, Hydrogen Economy, Hydrogen Education, Hydrogen Fuel Production, Infrastructure, News, Political Issues.by guest blogger Stan Thompson Davidson College is near our NC home and its proximity offers neighbors access to an astonishing parade of great minds. In 1962 I met cosmologist George Gamow there and got to ask him a few questions. Albert Einstein had died only seven years earlier; some would say Gamow was his • Read More »
The Hydrogen Transition: Kubrick’s “2001” monolith
June 20, 2020 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on The Hydrogen Transition: Kubrick’s “2001” monolith | Filed in: History, Hydrail, Hydrogen Aircraft, Hydrogen Economy, Hydrogen Education, Hydrogen Organizations, Infrastructure, Myths, News, Political Issues.by guest blogger Stan Thompson The world may little note nor long remember the routine June 8, 2020, press release by Germany’s venerable Thyssenkrupp industrial giant. But to me it is a transition marker that’s profound in the same way that the tiny band of iridium and ash around the world marks the cretaceous-tertiary boundary • Read More »
Could Russia pioneer high-speed hydrail?
December 21, 2019 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Could Russia pioneer high-speed hydrail? | Filed in: History, Hydrail, Infrastructure, News, Political Issues.by guest blogger Stan Thompson When Russia and Japan recently exchanged econdev ideas (December 2019) at the ministerial level, two of the specifics discussed were hydrogen production and greater use of the Trans-Siberia Railway. Those two dots, connected with others, could lead to Russia leaping the high speed bump now obstructing the way to wireless fuel cell • Read More »
Will hydrail connect North and South Korea?
May 13, 2018 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Will hydrail connect North and South Korea? | Filed in: History, Hydrail, Infrastructure, News, Political Issues.by guest blogger Stan Thompson Last Thursday (10 May 2018), Choe San-Hun wrote in the New York Times that, during their recent historic encounter, South Korean President Moon Jae-in handed North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un a “USB drive” containing an infrastructure vision including railway modernization. Mr. Choe does not mention hydrogen fuel cell railways but, • Read More »
Fuel Cell Friend Al Gore Fails to Mention FCEVs in New Movie
August 9, 2017 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | Comments Off on Fuel Cell Friend Al Gore Fails to Mention FCEVs in New Movie | Filed in: Celebrities, Political Issues.
Mega-environmentalist and former Vice President Al Gore has released his new movie, “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” which I highly recommend viewing. The movie fast forwards from the first movie, “An Inconvenient Truth” (which rolled out in 2006 and told the tale in video and graphs about the fact that the planet is warming • Read More »
Hydrail’s “Golden Spike” moment: Berlin, 2016
October 12, 2016 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrail’s “Golden Spike” moment: Berlin, 2016 | Filed in: Conferences, Fuel Cells, Hydrail, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Jobs, Hydrogen Economy, Infrastructure, Political Issues.by guest blogger, Stan Thompson Hydrail is the term of art for electrifying railways wirelessly by storing electrical energy onboard as hydrogen and reconverting it, via fuel cells, as needed to power electric traction motors. In Berlin, Germany, around noon on September 20, 2016, hydrail had its moment in history, reminiscent of May 10, 1869, at Promontory Point, • Read More »
Forty Alstom hydrail trainsets for Germany !
September 25, 2014 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Forty Alstom hydrail trainsets for Germany ! | Filed in: Conferences, Fuel Cells, Hydrail, Infrastructure, Political Issues.by guest blogger Stan Thompson Since you’re reading this, you already know how indebted the hydrogen community is to Kevin—the originator of this blog—for his role in keeping us up to date with the biggest news about the littlest atom. Today, though, I’m more grateful than ever; Kevin just tipped me off about an article in • Read More »
Japan Offering $20,000 Subsidies for FCVs
August 7, 2014 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | Comments Off on Japan Offering $20,000 Subsidies for FCVs | Filed in: Political Issues.As both Toyota and Honda are readying to rollout fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) in 2015, the Japanese government has announced rebates of $20,000 USD per car. So, for instance, a Toyota Mirai with a sticker price of $68,000 USD would actually cost around $48,000 USD in Japan. According to the Herald Sun, “Japan is readying • Read More »