Hydrogen Hits the Roads

The European Parliament staff had to be evacuated Monday September 19th when a power cut paralysed parts of the Belgian capital Brussels. Several areas of the city were left without power after a fire in an electrical station, network operator Elia said. Buildings housing the Council of the European Union, the European Commission and the parliament were among those hit by the blackout, officials contacted by AFP said. Parliament spokesman Jaume Duch said staff had been evacuated for safety reasons. “At about 2:00 pm (1200 GMT) a fire in an Elia transformer caused a power cut in the European quarter,” fellow network operator Sibelga said on its website. Fire crews and engineers attended the scene but had difficulty accessing the station through the smoke, Elia said. Other transformers were shut down as a precaution, spreading the blackout to other parts of the city. The fault was close to being resolved by 5:00 pm (1500 GMT), Elia said. Witnesses said traffic lights in the European quarter were affected by the power cut but the metro was running as normal. Source: ebusiness.com

The UK’s first public hydrogen filling station has opened in Swindon, UK today September 20th 2011. The fuel cell station is located at car manufacturer Honda’s South Marston plant and being seen as an important step in a UK-wide scheme to make hydrogen vehicles a viable alternative to petrol-driven cars. BBC went to Swindon to fill up the Honda FCX Clarity and speak to Professor Kevin Kendall a hydrogen and fuel cell expert from Birmingham University and Ian Piper from Forward Swindon. Link to BBC Report A joint press release, technical information relating to the launch event and more detailed information on the relevant hydrogen technology can be downloaded on this page.

Organized biennially by the Association of the German Automative Industry, the Frankfurt Motor Show is one of the biggest of its kind in the world. During last show in 2009 virtually every manufacturer has unveiled a vehicle utilizing battery technology. The event will exhibit many hybrid as well as concept cars. For more information visit here.

On September 8th 2011 two hydrogen-driven fuel cell hybrid buses successfully finished a four-month test period. The 18 meter articulated buses named “Phileas” will now take up regular public transport service on inner-city and regional lines in the Rhein-Erft county for the first time. The cities of Hürth and Brühl will be the core areas of the traffic service offering. As Eugen Puderbach, managing director of the operating company RVK (Regionalverkehr Köln GmbH) underlines: “We are very happy to start regular transport service with our hydrogen buses. It is our objective to further develop the technology and deploy it in the Greater Cologne region.” After years of research and development in the realm of fuel cell technology it is now high time to communicate the results to the broad public and make them palpable in daily life. Dr. Albrecht Möllmann, 1st chairman of “HyCologne Wasserstoff Region Rheinland e.V.”, points out that the HyCologne initiative also considers public relations to be among its tasks as a project development agency. “The fuel cell buses will be used in the regional public transport service and be officially presented at several public events: at the 46th IAA Motor Show in Frankfurt / Main, the [...]

WHTC2011, to be held in Glasgow, Scotland from 14th – 16th September 2011, will be a major international Hydrogen and Fuel Cell event bringing together the scientific and business community, and showcasing the latest transport and stationary technology within a 2000m2 exhibition. There is also the opportunity to entertain customers, colleagues and friends as part of the WHTC2011 GOLF Competition, to be held at a golf course near the fabulous Loch Lomond, so why not combine business with pleasure at WHTC2011!

The f-cell congress is the international meeting point for more than 800 participants interested in the subject of fuel cells who come from more than 20 countries and four continents. The f-cell Forum offers a unique chance to gather all the latest information and check up on current developments and new markets in the mobile, portable and stationary applications of fuel cell technologies. f-cell 2011 will focus on “Mobile applications – fuel cells and batteries moving the future”.  

The Clean Hydrogen and European Cities (CHIC) project and city hydrogen bus activities have been included in The Hydrogen Bus Alliance (HBA) annual review concluded in March 2011. The document provides a brief update to the developments in the hydrogen bus sector during 2010. The Alliance was formed in October 2006 and includes 10 members to date: Amsterdam (GVB) Barcelona (TNB) Berlin (BVG) British Columbia (BC Transit) Cologne (HyCologne) Hamburg (HySolutions) London (Transport for London) Oslo (Ruter) South Tyrol (Institut fur Innotive Technologien / Istituto per le Tecnologie Innovative) Western Australia (Public Transport Authority of Western Australia) All of these cities and regions have high level political support for hydrogen bus deployment programs and have programs in place for new hydrogen bus trials.The HBA regions all intend to procure hydrogen buses on a continuous basis as hydrogen buses move towards commercial viability in the 2010-2020 timescale. To view HBA Annual Review see downloads section of this post.  

McPhy Energy has announced that Nottingham University has chosen the company’s solution for mid-term storage of renewable energy in a residential micro-grid under its “Creative Energy Homes” (CEH) project.  The ongoing CEH project aims to stimulate sustainable design ideas and promote new ways of providing affordable, environmentally sustainable housing that are innovative in their design.  The energy will be stored as solid hydrogen and will be used for storage of surplus solar and wind energy under a new phase of the CEH project, which targets greater energy-autonomy for the homes via a dedicated micro-grid. Nottingham University’s Creative Energy Homes represent a unique research facility. The homes built under the program incorporate a range of low carbon technologies including renewable micro generation from solar, wind and ground source heat pumps. The houses have operated individually using only the renewable energy generated at that property. However, a practical, multi-home storage solution for surplus energy is needed to cover peak periods, especially after sundown and during periods of little or no wind. To respond to this challenge, this new phase of the CEH project is building a microgrid that will provide an energy management system across several houses. The project will investigate the [...]

Organized by Mexican Hydrogen Society within the Electricity Research Institute and the Energy Research Centre – UNAM, the 11th International Hydrogen Congress will take place in the City of Cuernavaca , Mexico, from September 20 to September 23. The conference will be focus on Hydrogen Energy Fuel Cell Applications Energy Systems Hydrogen Infrastructures Scientific Research Renewable Energy Energy and Economic Policy Registration and more information here.

The coalition study, by commissioned McKinsey & Company, assesses the role of battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell electric vehicles in achieving significant reductions of CO2 emissions from road transportation by 2050. Released on November 9, the study is based on more than 10,000 confidential and proprietary data points that participating companies provided to McKinsey & Company. This data included information about costs (vehicle costs, operating costs, fuels and infrastructure costs), performance, efficiency and emissions across the entire value chain. It found that installing a dedicated hydrogen infrastructure is “justified and doable”, with an initial infrastructure investment which is “relatively low”. The study includes that both fuel cell electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles could be cost-competitive with internal combustion engines vehicles by 2020. Costs for a hydrogen infrastructure are comparable to installing a charging infrastructure for battery-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Fuel cell electric vehicles received “high marks” in all three categories analysed in the report: performance, economics and environment. Higher risk investments by first-movers can be greatly reduced when several companies invest, coordinated by governments, and supported by dedicated funding and legislation. The study was sponsored by BMW AG, Daimler AG, Ford, General Motors LLC, Honda [...]