Lake Placid, NY is a tiny village of less than 3,000 people situated in the northeastern part of the state. Best known as the two-time host of the Winter Olympics and the “Miracle on Ice” between U. S. and Russian hockey teams, Lake Placid is hoping the miracle of hydrogen comes to their town.
The mayor of Lake Placid, Jamie Rogers, wants to use the hydroelectric dam on the Chubb River to electrolyze water directly into hydrogen in order to fuel the police cars. According to Rogers, this will save the city $40,000 a year in fuel costs and reduce emissions.
Lake Placid is not skating on thin ice, either when it comes to their hydrogen dreams as a similar project in western New York is already underway. In October 2006, I had talked about the Niagara Power Project, which is using energy from Niagara Falls to create hydrogen for vehicles.
But, unlike the demonstration Niagara Power Project, Mayor Rogers is proceeding with the Lake Placid hydrogen project for purely practical reasons, including saving money and saving the environment. In 1980, Eric Heiden won five gold metals at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Today, the mayor is aiming for a gold metal in hydrogen technology.