Willie Tun: Personally, I think hydrogen cars are a waste of time. It's much more efficient to drive an electric car with the energy you use to make the hydrogen. The infrastructure is just too expensive as well.HOWEVER, hydrogen fuel cells will have a place in this world: as batteries for renewable resources. If renewables are going to be more than 20% of the grid we need some form of backup to keep the grid stable. In my opinion, the best future choice for this is fuel cells powered by hydrogen made from excess renewable energy.This is already happening on a small scale as prototype home hydrogen "generators" are being designed as backups for home solar and wind. Furthermore, there are some companies that want to put wind farms in northern British Columbia, far from transmission lines. Installing transmission lines is too expensive, so they're considering using the wind farms to generate hydrogen, which could then be trucked out.Soo yes, I think research into hydrogen s! till valuable, but perhaps we should focus it on something other than cars....Show more
Lashawnda Anteby: All electric cars are available from Tesla today and new models from Nissan (Leaf) and Chevrolet (Volt) next year. Hydrogen fuel cells could be used as range extenders for these vehicles (versus a gasoline powered generator). But I wouldn't expect to see hydrogen fuel cells in cars anytime soon.
Rhett Kaines: Hydrogen is not a viable energy answer. The reason I believe this is because it is dependent on one thing that is already in short supply. Water. For the sake of argument let's say one gallon of water can produce enough hydrogen energy to replace one gallon of gas.(I believe it would be more than one gallon of water but let's go with one) What do you think would happen if your local water supply ha d to replace all the gasoline in your town right now? I think you get the picture....Show more
Willie Tun: the funding is for job making, not for scien! ce.
Lourie Mcroberts: I absolutely dislike the idea of f! uel cell vehicles. I think that they are a red herring, a distraction, from the future of other electric vehicles.1 I think that paying for research on the vehicles is a waste of resources when the technology to deliver hydrogen is highly unlikely to ever succeed economically. The most likely source of hydrogen would be petrochemicals and their inherent refinery, delivery, and protection costs in pollution and subsidies.BUT: I also dislike the idea of a simple and similar answer for everyone. I like diversity. The electric car is not for everyone. A gasoline vehicle is also not the best vehicle for every situation. The petrochemical engine now holds a near monopoly on our personal transportation. There may be a place for a hydrogen vehicle or the technology may have other applications. We only have to be concerned about stealing from innovation and funding the path that already is not working. We have to look at the larger picture or funding for all items. How f! unds are allocated is more a matter of politics than technology. So it is not surprising that an energy secretary decides to cut funding and a congress, which is influenced in a different way, restores funding. If people don't make their wishes known then congress will listen to other influences in spending our money....Show more
Cherry Stampka: First off, water is not in short supply. Drinking water, irrigation water, Maybe. Hydrogen is made from methane. Methane OTH is expensive, aka natural gas. Does it make sense to turn natural gas into hydrogen to make electricity?? I believe untill we can figure out how to cheaply split water, it is a waste of time. Trying to squeeze a few % effieciency out a fuel cell using hydrogen is meaningless compared to the energy required to make hydrogen. There really is only one way of producing energy and that is nuclear. Realistically, fuel cells are a waste of time. In a nut shell, you turn some chemical into electricit! y. You still have to make the chemical and store it....Show more
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