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Hydrogen Car Competition in China [1]
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Date: 2022-12-27
If we truly want to eliminate emissions, one of the biggest challenges is in the transportation industry. Now that industry is not limited to cars. There are trucks, buses, planes, trains, and ships to consider as well. But for the average family, the clean choice is between an electric or hydrogen vehicle. Right now, electric vehicles have the edge in the U.S., but that is not so much true around the globe. Hydrogen is making a charge.
The trick for both electric and hydrogen transportation is that the energy supply has to be clean.
An electric vehicle is only as clean as the energy that powers the grid. The majority of the U.S. grid is currently powered with fossil sources. Renewables and Nuclear power approximately 20% each. So, your clean electric car is only as clean as your grid.
Hydrogen-powered cars face the same dilemma. Hydrogen can be made using fossil fuel energy. The hydrogen itself can be made from gas or water. Thus, your clean hydrogen car is also only as clean as its sources.
Both electric and hydrogen cars present challenges to our grid or simply to our energy distribution and storage systems. We can choose one or the other, or to adopt both in various combinations. Other countries, however, are already making choices. This has implications both for climate change and for global competition. We want clean transportation and we want jobs in clean transportation.
In China, the current competitors for the hydrogen car market are Hyundai, Toyota, and BMW. Notice who is missing? In theory, at least, the U.S. should be competitive in this arena. Not yet, though. Hydrogen Car Competition in China
My money though, is on the Japanese entry for one simple reason. In Japan, the hydrogen will be made from a clean source...nuclear energy. Japanese Red Hydrogen Now Japan really has no choice. They have few fossil resources within their own boundaries.
There is, however, a lesson in this. Japan has a first-world economy without fossil resources. The U.S. should take notes.
Before anyone screams, “But Fukushima!”, take note. Fukushima was a mess, admittedly. But, first, no one died from reactor explosions or wastes. In fact the land around Fukushima is even now at a radiation level similar to that of Scandinavia. Second, Japan looked at the design flaws that led as simple a disaster as a tsunami shut down a reactor, and then took corrective actions. Ultimately Japan re-opened its nuclear fleet. Now, it is looking at new reactor designs.
For those not familiar with Flibe Energy, I’ll admit right off that it is not quite ready for production in the U.S. Very simply, the U.S. does not yet know how to evaluate it for safety. But, I would like to direct you to a U-Tube video of Flibe’s Benjamin Soon, talking about how only small, modular reactors will now be appropriate for some locations. Japan comes to mind. Benjamin Soon.
If you want something faster, you may be interested in Terrestrial Energy which has already been selected to replace coal plants in Canada. In the U.S. X-Energy and Terrapower are leading the research on how to best replace coal plants with nuclear energy. There are others. All, however, have the potential to make the heat needed for both electricity and hydrogen production. Further, they can make that heat without creating additional greenhouse gases.
Can’t beat that.
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