On your bike: the Chinese city of Guilin will license only electric scooters due to pollution
Whatever happened to the Great Hydrogen Economy proclaimed with such gusto by George W Bush in 2003? Hydrogen fuel cells, he promised, would help the US break free from the shackles of Gulf oil. A frisson of techno-excitement rippled round the developed world and Britain joined the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy along with China, Germany, France and Iceland, seeking to harness its geothermal power to produce the hydrogen.
It looked visionary and indeed it was. But it was also a strategy of convenience from the oilman president in the country of Big Oil and Big Auto.
A few years later, over dinner with the CEO of an oil major, I was emboldened by the third glass to suggest that the Great Hydrogen Economy was a ploy that would allow the oilmen to take control of the infrastructure needed to transport the fuel, and the car industry to capitalise on its expertise in releasing energy from hydrocarbons.
Surely, I suggested, the future belonged to the more disruptive technology of battery cars, rather than hydrogen? “That’s right,” he said with a smile. When I’d picked up my spoon and invited him to repeat that into my tape recorder his smile grew wider. “Port or dessert wine?” he enquired.
And indeed since then the Hydrogen Highway appears to have run out of road rather swiftly. The technology is not dead—the Honda FCX Clarity has won awards and other manufacturers are still designing. It is just that when governments looked seriously at the alternatives to oil, they quickly identified daunting obstacles to hydrogen. President Obama has responded by proposing to cut funding for research into hydrogen while boosting electric vehicles. Clearly, hydrogen is now the poor relation of battery cars.
The biggest challenge for hydrogen is infrastructure. Admittedly, electric cars will need extra charging points in car parks and on streets—and if they are to compete with petrol cars they’ll need the equivalent of filling stations, too. This will require political strategy and investment and it is by no means a problem solved. But unlike hydrogen, electric cars won’t need an entirely new infrastructure to carry the fuel.
Then there’s the question of storing the elusive hydrogen atoms. After you have used electricity or heat to split hydrogen from molecules of water or natural gas, you have a very large volume of the lightest element on earth. Even when it’s compressed, you still have to carry a huge tank of fuel that is low in energy density.
What’s more, no tank will hold hydrogen for long. The atoms are so tiny that they gradually wriggle through the gaps in steel.
So, if the hydrogen economy is in a slump, can electric cars carry us to an oil-free motoring future? It’s not a trivial question—especially in Britain where laws mandating cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide through to 2050 won’t be met unless the vehicle fleet swiftly goes low-carbon.
The biggest obstacles at the moment are cost and what motor folk call “range anxiety”—will I run out of charge on the motorway? The Chinese manufacturer BYD (Build Your Dreams), backed by the US billionaire Warren Buffett, is among the frontrunners of those tackling both obstacles. Soon it will demonstrate in Europe one “affordable” model with a claimed range of 186 miles and a 40-minute charge time, along with a dual-fuel SUV said to do 37 miles on a battery to allow commuting and another 308 miles with the petrol engine on board for long journeys.
Another way forward is being pioneered by Renault-Nissan’s Better Place project, which will allow flip-out batteries to be stored at filling stations and popped into cars for an “instant” charge, (although this creates a large capital cost for garage owners).
Roy Williamson from Britain’s Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership envisages that plug-in dual-fuel cars are the most likely way forward—maybe with rotary petrol engines or even jet engines to re-charge the batteries on a long journey. Even so, the cost of battery cars is a real drag on the progress of this technology.
The Chinese city of Guilin, faced with severe air pollution that is eating away its fabulous limestone crags, announced that it would license scooters only if they were electric. The electric scooter market has boomed and prices have plunged.
It needs a similarly dramatic initiative on a much bigger scale for battery-powered cars to create a Great Electric Economy.
Also in Prospect’s energy special:
Dieter Helm: Fossil fuels are not running out. That’s our biggest problem—and our big opportunity
Simon Henderson: The main security risk for Europe lies in Moscow
Malcolm Grimston: Nuclear may make sense, despite concerns
Miles Brignall: Get your solar panels while the subsidies last
Whatever happened to the Great Hydrogen Economy proclaimed with such gusto by George W Bush in 2003? Hydrogen fuel cells, he promised, would help the US break free from the shackles of Gulf oil. A frisson of techno-excitement rippled round the developed world and Britain joined the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy along with China, Germany, France and Iceland, seeking to harness its geothermal power to produce the hydrogen.
It looked visionary and indeed it was. But it was also a strategy of convenience from the oilman president in the country of Big Oil and Big Auto.
A few years later, over dinner with the CEO of an oil major, I was emboldened by the third glass to suggest that the Great Hydrogen Economy was a ploy that would allow the oilmen to take control of the infrastructure needed to transport the fuel, and the car industry to capitalise on its expertise in releasing energy from hydrocarbons.
Surely, I suggested, the future belonged to the more disruptive technology of battery cars, rather than hydrogen? “That’s right,” he said with a smile. When I’d picked up my spoon and invited him to repeat that into my tape recorder his smile grew wider. “Port or dessert wine?” he enquired.
And indeed since then the Hydrogen Highway appears to have run out of road rather swiftly. The technology is not dead—the Honda FCX Clarity has won awards and other manufacturers are still designing. It is just that when governments looked seriously at the alternatives to oil, they quickly identified daunting obstacles to hydrogen. President Obama has responded by proposing to cut funding for research into hydrogen while boosting electric vehicles. Clearly, hydrogen is now the poor relation of battery cars.
The biggest challenge for hydrogen is infrastructure. Admittedly, electric cars will need extra charging points in car parks and on streets—and if they are to compete with petrol cars they’ll need the equivalent of filling stations, too. This will require political strategy and investment and it is by no means a problem solved. But unlike hydrogen, electric cars won’t need an entirely new infrastructure to carry the fuel.
Then there’s the question of storing the elusive hydrogen atoms. After you have used electricity or heat to split hydrogen from molecules of water or natural gas, you have a very large volume of the lightest element on earth. Even when it’s compressed, you still have to carry a huge tank of fuel that is low in energy density.
What’s more, no tank will hold hydrogen for long. The atoms are so tiny that they gradually wriggle through the gaps in steel.
So, if the hydrogen economy is in a slump, can electric cars carry us to an oil-free motoring future? It’s not a trivial question—especially in Britain where laws mandating cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide through to 2050 won’t be met unless the vehicle fleet swiftly goes low-carbon.
The biggest obstacles at the moment are cost and what motor folk call “range anxiety”—will I run out of charge on the motorway? The Chinese manufacturer BYD (Build Your Dreams), backed by the US billionaire Warren Buffett, is among the frontrunners of those tackling both obstacles. Soon it will demonstrate in Europe one “affordable” model with a claimed range of 186 miles and a 40-minute charge time, along with a dual-fuel SUV said to do 37 miles on a battery to allow commuting and another 308 miles with the petrol engine on board for long journeys.
Another way forward is being pioneered by Renault-Nissan’s Better Place project, which will allow flip-out batteries to be stored at filling stations and popped into cars for an “instant” charge, (although this creates a large capital cost for garage owners).
Roy Williamson from Britain’s Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership envisages that plug-in dual-fuel cars are the most likely way forward—maybe with rotary petrol engines or even jet engines to re-charge the batteries on a long journey. Even so, the cost of battery cars is a real drag on the progress of this technology.
The Chinese city of Guilin, faced with severe air pollution that is eating away its fabulous limestone crags, announced that it would license scooters only if they were electric. The electric scooter market has boomed and prices have plunged.
It needs a similarly dramatic initiative on a much bigger scale for battery-powered cars to create a Great Electric Economy.
Also in Prospect’s energy special:
Dieter Helm: Fossil fuels are not running out. That’s our biggest problem—and our big opportunity
Simon Henderson: The main security risk for Europe lies in Moscow
Malcolm Grimston: Nuclear may make sense, despite concerns
Miles Brignall: Get your solar panels while the subsidies last
