Taking a page out of the playbook of the hydrogen fueling station cluster model in Los Angeles, Shell Hydrogen has taken it upon themselve to do the same around New York City.
Now, I had talked 6 months ago (and before) about the cluster model for grouping hydrogen cars with hydrogen fueling stations in the same geographical locations such as Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC.
Right now in Southern California there is a mish mash of public and private hydrogen fueling stations comprising this cluster with different operators such as Air Products, Praxair, Chevron and Shell. The Shell Hydrogen station is location in Los Angeles on Santa Monica Boulevard.
In the Los Angeles area there are a handful of future hydrogen fueling stations planned which will be operated by different vendors. Shell Hydrogen has decided that it will take the challenge among themselves to open two new H2 stations in the coming weeks.
Shell already has a station in the White Plains, NY area. Today, they are adding a hydrogen fueling station at the JFK International airport that can dispense compressed hydrogen at both 5,000 and 10,000 psi. In just a couple of weeks, Shell will open a third station in the Bronx that will dispense hydrogen at 10,000 psi.
Shell also has a hydrogen fueling station open in Washington DC, which is approximately 200 miles away and within range of many of today’s hydrogen cars. This is the first time in the U. S. a single vendor such as Shell Hydrogen has decided to go it alone with the hydrogen cluster model.
What this means is that GM and Honda can rollout more leases and loaners to those in the NYC area with more H2 refueling options than ever before. Now, if we can just build a few more hydrogen fueling stations in the Washington DC area and cluster H2 cars and stations around the politicians, this may send a signal that hydrogen is not a novelty, but rather a solution for lower emissions and energy independence that should be taken seriously as a near term solution along with a long term strategy.