The Hydrogen Highway

[Richard230]

A link in the Hydrogen Highway is being built across from Alice's Restaurant in the Santa Cruz Mountains, south of San Francisco. What a monumental boondoggle!  I have heard that there are just a few H2 cars in all of California and I believe all of those are production prototypes being tested by the auto manufacturers.  I am pretty sure that none are privately owned at this time.  However, should anyone in the SF Bar Area buy an H2-powered auto, they can always drive up into the mountains to find a filling station, which is being built at great expense by some government agency using taxpayer funds. 

This complex has been under construction all summer long and is now reaching the point where some of the equipment is being installed.  Attached are photos that I took today and I will post updates as the construction continues until the project is complete and the security fencing is removed. All that equipment just to supply one filling outlet.  I have my doubts if I will ever be able to post a privately-owned hydrogen-powered car filling up at this out-of-the-way station, though.

I might add that today I spoke with a couple of local residents, including one of the owners of Alice Restaurant, and they also think the station is a big joke.   

Attached is a photo of the H2 pump.

[Richard230]

And here is a photo of the H2 tanks.   

[Brammofan]

Looks like an accident waiting to happen. 

[Shinysideup]

Hydrogen under very high pressure being carried in an car on public highways? What could go wrong?

And then there's the preposterous economics of the whole H2 energy cycle: Most of it derives from natural gas and takes huge amounts of energy to compress it. Boondoggle indeed!

[Richard230]

Here is a link to some interesting and informative information regarding Hydrogen-fueled cars:
https://www.edmunds.com/fuel-economy/8-things-you-need-to-know-about-hydrogen-fuel-cell-cars.html

And here is a link to the locations of H2 stations in California:
http://cafcp.org/stationmap

This description is for the hydrogen station being built across from Alice's Restaurant, at the intersection of State highways 35 and 84: Woodside, 17287 Skyline Boulevard, Woodside, CA 94062:

Station Type: Retail - In development
Development Status: Commissioning
Expected to Open: March 2017
Hydrogen Source: Gaseous H2 Delivery
Station Customer Service: (604) 904-0412

[Richard230]

The Hydrogen Highway has returned to Skylonda and is now being worked on again. I wonder where the money came from and who is going to drive up into the Santa Cruz mountains to refill their H2-powered car?  Especially as no company has even bothered to install an L2 charging station in the area. 

[Ultratoad]

Holy Crap Batman !!!!  Did not see that coming....  Hydrogen has been very successful in Germany....  Certainly environmentally  friendly....  We think we are on top....  In actuality, we are wayyyyy behind....

[HadesOmega]

That's still not done yet?  It looked like that last year.

[Richard230]

That's still not done yet?  It looked like that last year.

Give it another year and maybe it will finally be completed.  The history of that construction project is that they tend to shut down work during our terrible winters in the San Francisco Bay Area.   

Oh yes, they also tend to stop work when the contractor doesn't get paid for a few years. 

That hydrogen highway sure as a few bumps and potholes in it.   

[HadesOmega]

Terrible winters hah I can only think of one really rainy one.

There is a hydrogen station near the San Jose Airport at a gas station.  That's the only one I know of and I've seen one at Harris Ranch next to the Tesla chargers on I5. 

When someone cracks the secret to refining hydrogen at no cost that'll be the day H2 takes off.

It would be cool to have a hydrogen station for small cars or motorcycle/scooters where it would be like exchanging BBQ propane tanks but then again you could do the same for batteries.  And filling up hydrogen doesn't take that long.

[Richard230]

 A stop on the California Hydrogen Highway has finally been completed after years of construction and at a cost of millions of dollars. Plus, it is located where hydrogen-powered vehicles are unlikely to travel - across from Alice's Restaurant, located in the Santa Cruz Mountains, about 50 miles south of San Francisco. While the station may now be completed there appears to be no one to operate it, likely because they can't find anyone that can sleep long enough for a customer to arrive. 

[Shinysideup]

What an utter waste!

At least if there's a massive fire, it will mostly  be redwoods that are hundreds of years old that will be destroyed.

[Richard230]

This guy doesn't believe that hydrogen-powered vehicles have much of a future:

[HadesOmega]

It would be a fun drive up there to refuel at least.  I can't believe they don't have an EV charger up there though, I have to charge at the Portola Library when i had the Empulse.  I am actually for hydrogen, if they can find a way to make green hydrogen in mass it would be great.  Batteries seriously are heavy.  One thing I would love is a hydrogen fuel cell portable generator.  Would be like a propane generator I guess but it wouldn't make any noise or emissions.

It's tempting to buy a Mirai right now.  Toyota is practically paying you to drive it.  It literally depreciates from a $60k car to a $15k car, the quality is really good also.  A lot of the world is turning hydrogen also.  It's really expensive the hydrogen right now though, if you don't have the fuel card from the manufacturers.  It makes more sense to have an EV and have solar panels at home.  But if you live in an apartment hydrogen is actually a better way to go.  You don't have to worry about battery degradation also.

Segway might be producing this the Segaway Apex H2
https://in.news.yahoo.com/segways-apex-h2-hydrogen-powered-112403433.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMhoSZbGsAcrI9IzsPDLsYbeygqVwL_vK_obqqdn9DjLyYOAcc1vDCKNakdG9jgDU1RUjYw5F7ysOmJhlndvi5-BoqwPk27ieDmGgjJpx9zlCXiRPu-unhcjNS4OUboT8UoiG7X_0E4ziIAf544hpKaCYax_M4-eA2Wlc8VWw56l

[Richard230]

What impresses me most about hydrogen-fueled vehicles are the kind of pressures that you are dealing with.    I can't see a vehicle the size of a motorcycle having a 700 bar pressure tank, strong, light and small enough to fit in a motorcycle frame. Then the other question becomes would the rider feel comfortable with a pressure tank like that located under their butt or in front of their crotch?