The Hydrogen Highway was a grand plan four years ago to turn the West Coat into a network of H2 cars and refueling stations. Because of various setbacks including the national and California economic crisis being two of them, a more likely scenario is that Hydrogen Cities will emerge first.
The theory is that most drivers drive less than 50 miles per day on average. This is also the same fact that electric car advocates and plug-in hybrid makers are banking on as well.
So, if most drivers are driving less than 50 miles a day, why not put the hydrogen refueling stations where the drivers are? Add to the fact that some of the hydrogen car drivers will opt for home hydrogen refueling stations and not as many public stations will need to be built.
Now, I’ve talked about the hydrogen car chicken or the egg obstacles before. RIT is calling for clusters of hydrogen stations to be built inside large cities first. Mary Nichols of CARB is also discussing this idea at the Reuters Global Environment Summit.
GM and Honda are already working under this idea as they are currently only letting drivers in a certain zip code (near the hydrogen fueling stations) drive their cars. Hydrogen clusters before hydrogen highways sounds like a prudent course of action in order to jumpstart the carmakers and hydrogen fuel station developers in tandem.
Do you think if we drilled more in America we wouldn’t have to worry about Hyrdogen so soon in the era of human existence with automobiles?
No, I think drill, baby, drill is a delay tactic favored by the oil companies so that they can keep maximizing profits and keep the dependence upon gasoline alive for as long as possible.
I really hope people pick up on this technology. I think it will take a long time to adapt, especially in the current economic conditions because hydrogen powered cars are/are going to be too costly at first.
Either way, I am really impressed with how things are picking up and I really hope it continues… even if it is just a few cities in California at a time.