Opel Receives Award Testing H2 Fueling Stations for Safety

September 28, 2010 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | Filed in: Hydrogen Safety.

I’ve talked before about the GM Opel HydroGen4 minivan rolling out in Germany. I’ve also talked about the GM HydroGen4 being shown in the U. S. and being a part of Germany’s Project Driveway testing program.

Now, GM’s subsidiary Opel has received a prestigious bronze FCell award in Germany for a new method of testing 10,000 psi (700-bar) fueling stations for safety and ease of use. If you’re a regular reader here you’ll already know that Germany is leading the pack and is serious about rolling out enough hydrogen fueling station by 2015 to meet commercialization of hydrogen vehicles in that same country in the same year.

According to Rita Forst, Vice President of Engineering at Opel, “It is essential that we look at infrastructure issues such as the easy and safe refueling of fuel cell vehicles. There is hardly a new, fully integrated hydrogen filling station in Germany which has opened before being first validated using our experience. With every new station, we get closer to our goal of launching emissions-free fuel cell vehicles in 2015.”

Standardizing the testing of hydrogen fueling stations will not only verify safety and ease of use but will lead to standardization of the stations themselves which will drive down costs and lead to greater public acceptance.

Just as GM is one of the companies leading the charge in more resistant U. S. marketplace, GM / Opel is leading the charge in the more enthusiastic German marketplace for having hydrogen cars and infrastructure in place by the year 2015.


2 comments on “Opel Receives Award Testing H2 Fueling Stations for Safety

  1. It looks like Germany will lead in Hydrogen. If they do this and really do switch from petrol to Hydrogen, we’ll wonder what it was that engendered the vision necessary to bring this about. Actually, I’m wondering already.

  2. What happens to America when we can’t afford Grocery’s.
    What happens when we can not afford fixing our infrastructure
    What happens when our Country needs other Country’s take us completely over?
    Come on lets discover what we already know let us test educate our Country on H2 so we can eat and create jobs.Stop sending our cash overseas and say we can do this we must do this.We need jobs.