i was at Beaconsfield services on the M40 the other day and noticed that the filling station there sells hydrogen. First time I’ve come across this. So I guess that somebody’s started getting the infrastructure together for fuel-cell vehicles. So I should be able to top up my Toyota Mirai, Space shuttle, or Hindenburg just outside Slough nowadays.
At the moment a Toyota Mirai costs around £60k, and a Hyundai ix35-FC about £53k, but I guess like all emerging technologies the price will soon come down to something more manageable. I’ve always thought of hybrid vehicles, like the Prius, as a stop-gap until something better comes along. Hybrids still rely on IC and have to lug around heavy and expensive batteries. I don’t really know enough about fuel cells, but looks on the face of it to perhaps be a viable alternative.
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I think it's a better alternative than battery powered cars.
Equipping a few thousand filling stations to deliver hydrogen will be a lot cheaper than installing millions of electric car charging points and massive upgrades to the grid.
The charging time for electric cars is still an issue as well. If they get bigger batteries to get more range, then it will become a bigger issue - unless they put in really fast charging points, which will require even more upgrades to the electricity infrastructure.
Hydrogen is a good way to store intermittent electricity from renewables as well. When there is a surplus, you separate the hydrogen from sea water using electrolysis. Countries with lots of spare renewable resources (hydro in Norway, Geothermal in Iceland) could separate the hydrogen very cheaply. Better buying hydrogen from Norway than oil from some of the nutters in the Middle East.
The only issue with hydrogen is 'making' enough of the stuff. The UK could take advantage of sea water and off shore wind power to make clean hydrogen fuel.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
The way we are going with solar, we are likely to have a surplus of electricity generation on nice summer days. We could use that as well.
http://riversimple.com
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
It is also far more volatile than petrol and holds less energy for a given volume.
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Maybe we should reduce our carbon footprint by just not letting Richard Hammond anywhere near any vehicles?
Not just Hammond:
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/top-gear-new-series-when-what-date-car-fire-eddie-jordan-chris-harris-monte-carlo-rally-a8192656.html
I think that was the episode where Harris killed two Volvo 4 x 4s as well.