Even during this worldwide wretched economic recession, nations all over the globe managed to open 22 new hydrogen fueling stations in 2010 for a total of 212. Hydrogen car critics will tell you that there must be some sort of mass delusion going on for so many people around the world to be putting up H2 fueling stations (and building hydrogen cars).
According to TUV SUD, “27 hydrogen refueling stations were in operation in Germany in 2010 and definite plans have been made for a further 13. Throughout Europe including Germany, eleven new hydrogen refueling stations took up operations last year, while five new stations opened in the US and another nine will be completed shortly. However, some refueling stations also closed, so that LBST’s records show the number of hydrogen refueling stations in operation as 80 each in Europe and the USA and 48 in Asia. The other four refueling stations are located in Latin America and Australia.
“In addition to the announced extensions in Japan and Hawaii, definite plans for another 30 new hydrogen refueling stations across the world have been reported. In this context, the numbers of new hydrogen refueling stations in North America and Europe are equal, at 13 refueling stations in each region.”
Now, it’s been a while since I had last perused over the worldwide map of hydrogen fueling stations so I thought I would take another gander. One of the first things that jumped out at me were not the fueling stations in the U. S. and Europe as those are a given. But, the ones that jumped up were the ones in areas of extreme unrest right now such as Egypt (out of operation) and Pakistan (planned). Also I hadn’t realized that Brazil has two operational hydrogen fueling stations and Argentina has one as well.
The H2 deniers want other people to think that hydrogen cars are a local phenomenon that is just one of those wacky “California things” (plus maybe a couple of other places). But, as anyone can see hydrogen cars and fueling stations are a worldwide phenomenon and force that will not be held back by a handful of skeptics and naysayers.