Despite DOE’s Cuts to Hydrogen in US, Other Countries Are Driving Forward with Fuel Cell Vehicles
Amid the recent disappointing news of budget cuts to the US Department of Energy’s fuel cell vehicle program, there have been several bright spots for fuel cell vehicles. The following announcements have been made in the last several days:
- A fuel cell car rally marked the official opening of Norway’s 350-mile hydrogen highway that runs between Oslo and Stavanger. Several hydrogen stations are located between the two cities. In the future, this roadway may be linked to Germany’s hydrogen Autobahn.
- The world’s first triple-hybrid fuel cell bus was presented last week in Germany by fuel cell developer, Proton Power Systems, and busmaker, Skoda. The vehicle, which features a combination of fuel cells, batteries and ultra-capacitors, will be placed in operation in Prague in mid-2009.
- Mercedes-Benz has announced it will begin small-scale production of its B-class fuel cell vehicle by the end of 2009. Mercedes’ new Citaro FuelCELL hybrid bus will also be debuted in Vienna in June.
- Honda and Toyota plan to continue development of fuel cell vehicles, in spite of Department of Energy fuel cell vehicle program cuts.
- Japan’s government has committed up to $50 million to support hydrogen infrastructure development in up to five regions of Japan.
- Two Hydrogenics fuel cell-powered hybrid MidiBuses have been placed in service in Herten, Germany. Ten Hydrogenics’ fuel cell hybrid MidiBuses are now deployed in Europe.
- The city of Hamburg will work in partnership with Daimler, Shell, Total and Vattenfall Europe to accelerate the expansion of a clean vehicle fleet and development of hydrogen fueling stations. Hydrogen pumps will be added to four public filling stations, and Daimler will expand the city’s fuel cell bus fleet to 10 vehicles and add 20 Mercedes-Benz B-Class fuel cell cars. Daimler sees a potential for 500-1000 fuel cell powered vehicles by 2015 in Hamburg.
Let’s hope Congress will reinstate funding to the hydrogen program so the United States doesn’t have to play catch up to Europe, Japan and China. Many of the major fuel cell manufacturers are based here in the U.S., too.
05.12.2009
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May 12, 2009 @ 11:54 am
Jennifer says...
It’s not too late to get the funding reinstated - contact your Congrssman! Visit http://www.fuelcells.org/info/grassroots.html for links and resoureces.
May 18, 2009 @ 6:33 pm
Philip Block says...
Fat chance. G.E. has the Democrats in their pocket. With a recent news remark that GE has donated some 20 million to the Dems., this is payback time. Recently, the GA State Leg. approved the two new reactors GA Pwr. is planning to install (GE) at a cost of 14 billion dollars. Today it came out that the Govt. (ie-taxpayer) is supposedly going to pay for them. So, all those liberal suckers in the Northeast will help pay for the nuclear power plants in GA while they have been nixing nuclear power for years–and rightly so. The previous nuclear fiasco that ended in the 1980s proved that a private power company cannot financially build nuclear power plants. Question? Does the 14 billion dollars include all the land that will have to be confiscated for the transmission lines and associated equipmnent? Does the 14 billion dollars inlude the nuclear waste cleanup from the plant? Probably not. Billions are presently being spent in an attempt to clean up the nuclear waste from some 22 or so site around the country. When is Yucca Mountain, a nuclear waste depositiory (cost–90 billion plus), going to be finished? Probably never. Somebody needs to do a real investigation into this new nuclear power fiasco. The news media? Fat chance. They are not going to jeopardize all the millions that GE is punping into them advertising green power. Also, since the majority of the news media is Dem. controlled, fat chance they would say anything. So–fat chance for anything being accomplished. The rest of the world will have to go forward with the 21st technology (Fuel Cells) while the good old USA withers away on the 20th century technology vine.
June 29, 2009 @ 10:25 pm
Richard Horwitz says...
If you had been listening to Ira Flatow’s “Science Friday” last week you would have heard a scientist talk about using carbonized chicken feathers for the storage of hydrogen. Much cheaper than creating carbon nano tubes. These feathers are disposed of at some cost and it makes sense to use them in this way. A fuel cell car or bus with a tankful of feathers sounds like a joke, but this man was serious.