Hydrogen Cars Tangled in Red Tape Posted on January 9th, 2010
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by Hydro Kevin at HydrogenCarsNow
Getting hydrogen cars on the road in mass quantities has been no easy task. There have been many bumps in the road, so to speak, along the way and this trend will continue.
Even though hydrogen cars have been around for a couple hundred years now, preceding the gasoline engine, people and governments seem to be largely uneducated about how the gas should be handled. And when a government doesn’t know how to handle something “unusual.” like hydrogen they tend to throw out a safety net of “red tape” to surround it.
Mike Strizki got a taste of this when he was trying to build his hydrogen-solar home in New Jersey. The different state agencies had no building or safety codes for handling hydrogen, so they bogged him down in red tape until they could catch up. At one point, Mr. Strizki said about one of the agencies in frustration, “They’re worried about the deer running into the tanks” referring to the 200 psi hydrogen tanks in his backyard.
But, the U. S. isn’t the only place where red tape is holding back hydrogen. In the UK, Revolve Technologies is finding out that current British law blocks the use of “new fuel” vehicles on the road. One branch of the UK government, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has promoted hydrogen vehicles as a clean alternative to those burning fossil fuels.
But, not all of the UK’s government agencies have been brought up to speed. According to Revolve’s technical director, Paul Turner, “We didn’t realise when we began the hydrogen programme that we were pioneering not just a new technology but new legislation too. We have worked closely with a number of government departments to identify key issues and help them to develop a new series of regulations which can accommodate the safe storage, handling, dispensing and use of this exciting new carbon free fuel.”
Well, the “new carbon free fuel” part isn’t exactly accurate as it has been around a couple of centuries as previously pointed out. But, what is new is the renewed interest in this old fuel for powering vehicles and the new rules and regulations that must be created to modernize how we think about alternative fuels.
In some ways, breaking the bureaucratic red tape will be like breaking one of the many finish lines that hydrogen cars have to burst through on the way towards mass commercialization.
Nissan CEO Says Electric Vehicles Will Only Be 10% of Market in 10 Years Posted on September 10th, 2009
Yet another automotive expert has attempted to explain to people that the electric vehicle will not be the dominant form of transportation in the near future. Back in July, Bosch executives explained how EVs aren’t likely to be a “significant” portion of the motor vehicle market for at least 20 years. Now, Nissan’s CEO has said much the same.
Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan, speaking to a seminar in Michigan, explained that in ten years’ time, he predicts that electric vehicles will only make up about ten percent (10%) of the total global market in motor vehicles.
Like Bosch before him, Ghosn is getting a lot of flak from the electric press for his remarks. Like Bosch before him, though, the Nissan CEO is right. Like most emerging technologies just coming into their own in a market already saturated with options and that has an established culture behind it, EVs will have a lot of work to do to make headway against the traditional vehicles already ensconced in our cultures.
World Solar Racing Champs Roll Out New Competition Car Posted on July 25th, 2009
The Dutch Nuon Solar Team from Delft University has taken the trophy at the World Solar Challenge four times in a row now. They’ve unveiled the car that they think will make it five in a row – the Nuna 5.
Read more about it at Zoomilife.com!
The Solar Blimp Takes To the Skies! Posted on July 23rd, 2009
French engineers have built a helium blimp and wrapped the top of it in solar panels. The cells power the propellers that moves the blimp and makes it zero-emissions. The team plans to fly the zeppelin across the English Channel later this summer after flight testing.
Called Project Sol’R, the blimp is led by INSA Lyon and ESSEC Business School built the aluminum frame and then stretched a nylon-polythylene wrap over that. The whole blimp is 72 feet long and the cells generate up to 2.4 kilowatts.
The blimp was built by students of the engineering schools and took about a year and a half to complete. The Sol’R debuted at the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget in late June.
Interestingly, Lockheed Martin has been working on a solar-powered drone (unmanned) blimp for military reconnaissance use, but is not affiliated with this Sol’R project.
I wish the team the best of luck and can’t wait to find out how the flight over the Channel went!
Bosch Says Electric Vehicles Won’t Become Pervasive for at Least 20 Years Posted on July 21st, 2009
Full electric power trains like battery electrics, hydrogen fuel cells, and so forth are coming, but slowly. Let’s face it: most of those on the market so far are nothing more than curiosities. The Tesla Roadster and the Aptera 2e, while they look really good and are desirable vehicles, aren’t exactly mainstream.
Whether it’s the price tag, the limited occupancy, or just the limited numbers available, full electric cars aren’t here yet. While the next five years promise to see many new models from several manufacturers hitting the streets of the world, it will be a long time before these vehicles are totally accepted and are available to everyone.
Read the rest of this at Zoomilife.com.
