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Friday, July 18, 2008
Science panel says $200B needed for hydrogen vehicles
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The United States needs to invest $200 billion in new fueling stations and research to speed up the development and widespread use of hydrogen-powered automobiles, the National Academies of Science said in a report Thursday. That figure includes about $55 billion in government funding through 2023, with most of the rest coming from the auto and energy industries. The report said the maximum number of hydrogen vehicles on the roads by that time would be 2 million -- a small fraction of the total U.S. vehicle population of about 300 million cars and trucks.
"Such vehicles are not likely to be cost competitive until after 2020," the 256-page report said, but "could grow rapidly" after that to 2 million by 2030. By 2050, they could account for 80 percent of all vehicles. The report comes three years after Congress ordered the National Academy to assess the feasibility of broader hydrogen use and the findings could boost prospects for increasing government research funding. General Motors Corp. spokesman Greg Martin said government support was essential to making mass use of hydrogen vehicles a reality. "Any serious plan to supplant petroleum is going to require serious investment from the public and private sector," he said.
Automakers are racing to develop fuel-saving technologies and alternative power-trains as high gas prices drive up demand for greener vehicles, and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which have been linked to global warming. The primary advantage of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is they produce no greenhouse gas emissions and require no petroleum. The only byproduct of burning hydrogen to power vehicles is water. But the vehicles pose technical challenges and the infrastructure does not yet exist for easy refueling. Hydrogen is largely available only in southern California, New York and Washington, D.C.
President Bush proposed spending $1.2 billion over five years for hydrogen research in his 2003 State of the Union address. On top of that, the Bush administration proposed spending $263 million next year. Of $55 billion in government funding from 2008 through 2023, $5 billion would go to research and development, $40 billion in subsidies to get vehicles on the roads while they remain very expensive and $10 billion in support for producing hydrogen. The government support would translate into $9,500 per vehicle.
Automakers don't disclose the costs of the few hundred fuel cell vehicles on the roads -- but generally say it costs $1 million to $2 million to produce one in such low volumes. The main expense is the platinum in the fuel stack, which accounts for 57 percent of the fuel stack cost. The stack contains the membrane where hydrogen reacts with oxygen to generate electricity. Another technical hurdle is that fuel cell stack life has increased to only 2,000 hours, compared with the Energy Department's goal of 5,000 hours by 2015.
Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, has called for a $150 billion green technologies program that includes money for advanced vehicle research like hydrogen powered fuel cells. The National Academies of Science report also notes that several other countries continue to boost funding for hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles and automakers will need to spend large amounts of money. GM is putting 100 hydrogen fuel cell Chevy Equinox vehicles in the hands of ordinary Americans as part of its Project Driveway. "We're on the cusp of commercial application," Martin said.
Last month, Honda Motor Co. announced it was leasing 200 of its FCX Clarity fuel-cell vehicles over three years. The company announced that actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest would get one of the first vehicles. Daimler AG said last year it wants to mass produce fuel cell vehicles by 2015 and has logged more than 2.3 million miles on 100 test vehicles. It plans to start selling a fuel-cell B-class Mercedes in 2010. Chrysler LLC is working with Daimler, its former parent. Chrysler showed off a concept EcoVoyager, a range-extended electric vehicle that had a hydrogen fuel cell as a secondary source of power, at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last January. Toyota has had a couple of different versions of it Fuel Cell Powered Highlander in evaluation at USC since early 2004 to study and evaluate hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles from a viability and practical application standpoint, and a small test fleet on the road as well.
Ford Motor Co. has a fleet of 30 hydrogen fuel cell Ford Focus vehicles on the roads and also hydrogen powered internal combustion shuttle buses at airports, including Detroit Metro. Ford spokesman Mike Moran said it "was encouraging to see a recommendation to advance the technology, especially the production of hydrogen." Hydrogen is twice as energy intensive as gasoline, allowing vehicles to go twice as far, but costs more than gasoline. The average midsize fuel cell vehicle has a fuel economy of 55 mpg. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for a statewide network of hydrogen refueling stations by 2010.
Science panel says $200B needed for hydrogen vehicles
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The United States needs to invest $200 billion in new fueling stations and research to speed up the development and widespread use of hydrogen-powered automobiles, the National Academies of Science said in a report Thursday. That figure includes about $55 billion in government funding through 2023, with most of the rest coming from the auto and energy industries. The report said the maximum number of hydrogen vehicles on the roads by that time would be 2 million -- a small fraction of the total U.S. vehicle population of about 300 million cars and trucks.
"Such vehicles are not likely to be cost competitive until after 2020," the 256-page report said, but "could grow rapidly" after that to 2 million by 2030. By 2050, they could account for 80 percent of all vehicles. The report comes three years after Congress ordered the National Academy to assess the feasibility of broader hydrogen use and the findings could boost prospects for increasing government research funding. General Motors Corp. spokesman Greg Martin said government support was essential to making mass use of hydrogen vehicles a reality. "Any serious plan to supplant petroleum is going to require serious investment from the public and private sector," he said.
Automakers are racing to develop fuel-saving technologies and alternative power-trains as high gas prices drive up demand for greener vehicles, and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which have been linked to global warming. The primary advantage of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is they produce no greenhouse gas emissions and require no petroleum. The only byproduct of burning hydrogen to power vehicles is water. But the vehicles pose technical challenges and the infrastructure does not yet exist for easy refueling. Hydrogen is largely available only in southern California, New York and Washington, D.C.
President Bush proposed spending $1.2 billion over five years for hydrogen research in his 2003 State of the Union address. On top of that, the Bush administration proposed spending $263 million next year. Of $55 billion in government funding from 2008 through 2023, $5 billion would go to research and development, $40 billion in subsidies to get vehicles on the roads while they remain very expensive and $10 billion in support for producing hydrogen. The government support would translate into $9,500 per vehicle.
Automakers don't disclose the costs of the few hundred fuel cell vehicles on the roads -- but generally say it costs $1 million to $2 million to produce one in such low volumes. The main expense is the platinum in the fuel stack, which accounts for 57 percent of the fuel stack cost. The stack contains the membrane where hydrogen reacts with oxygen to generate electricity. Another technical hurdle is that fuel cell stack life has increased to only 2,000 hours, compared with the Energy Department's goal of 5,000 hours by 2015.
Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, has called for a $150 billion green technologies program that includes money for advanced vehicle research like hydrogen powered fuel cells. The National Academies of Science report also notes that several other countries continue to boost funding for hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles and automakers will need to spend large amounts of money. GM is putting 100 hydrogen fuel cell Chevy Equinox vehicles in the hands of ordinary Americans as part of its Project Driveway. "We're on the cusp of commercial application," Martin said.
Last month, Honda Motor Co. announced it was leasing 200 of its FCX Clarity fuel-cell vehicles over three years. The company announced that actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest would get one of the first vehicles. Daimler AG said last year it wants to mass produce fuel cell vehicles by 2015 and has logged more than 2.3 million miles on 100 test vehicles. It plans to start selling a fuel-cell B-class Mercedes in 2010. Chrysler LLC is working with Daimler, its former parent. Chrysler showed off a concept EcoVoyager, a range-extended electric vehicle that had a hydrogen fuel cell as a secondary source of power, at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last January. Toyota has had a couple of different versions of it Fuel Cell Powered Highlander in evaluation at USC since early 2004 to study and evaluate hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles from a viability and practical application standpoint, and a small test fleet on the road as well.
Ford Motor Co. has a fleet of 30 hydrogen fuel cell Ford Focus vehicles on the roads and also hydrogen powered internal combustion shuttle buses at airports, including Detroit Metro. Ford spokesman Mike Moran said it "was encouraging to see a recommendation to advance the technology, especially the production of hydrogen." Hydrogen is twice as energy intensive as gasoline, allowing vehicles to go twice as far, but costs more than gasoline. The average midsize fuel cell vehicle has a fuel economy of 55 mpg. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for a statewide network of hydrogen refueling stations by 2010.