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www.us-
tech.com
July, 2016 Tech-Op-ed
SOUNDING OFF
By Walter Salm Editor Emeritus
Is This My Next Car? F
uel cells. I talk about them so much that my coworkers are getting a lit- tle sick of the subject. But I have a long history with these remarkable power sources. The very first fuel cell article I ever wrote appeared in
Popular Electronics magazine in 1965. There were several publicity photos showing a fuel-cell-powered golf cart driven by a blonde model, a forklift, and a farm tractor, all from Allis Chalmers. At the time, the only practical use for fuel cells was onboard NASA’s Gemini and Apollo space vehicles, because in this case, the high cost of the emerging technology was no deterrent. The Apollo took fuel cells on its voyage to the moon and back and carried large fu- el tanks filled with hydrogen and oxygen. My dream at the time was to live long enough to someday drive a production model fuel-cell powered automo- bile that was within reach of mainstream America. That finally happened a short time ago, when my neighbor Ben and I
drove 95 miles to West Sacramento to the California Fuel Cell Partnership (CAFCP), ironically right across the road from IKEA, one of my wife’s very fa- vorite places to shop — a store where I have parted with a lot of money. Once there, we met briefly with Chris White, CAFCP’s PR director, who provided updates on the infrastructure situation. See the story on page 1. Seated behind the wheel of the Toyota Mirai, I was faced with a slick,
skinny instrument panel, tucked deep under a dashboard overhang to elimi- nate reflections, glare, etc. The speedometer is digital, and the entire dash- board takes a little getting used to. This is the first production fuel-cell pow- ered vehicle in an affordable price range — about $57,000. While this may not sound very affordable, there are incentives that bring the cost down, and be- sides, there are plenty of consumers out there who gladly shell out that much money or more for an all-electric car or a luxury car or a full-size pickup truck. And BTW, this vehicle is currently only available on a lease. Getting to drive this technological marvel was one of the perks of being
an editor/writer for a major trade publication. I was expecting an effortless fast-accelerating electric car, and the Mirai did not disappoint. But why did it take so long to get here? After all, the fuel cell has been around since 1839. First of all, the manufacturing technology was not in place during the 19th Century. Secondly, there was no discernible market for this technology. And of course, there was no hydrogen refueling infrastructure in place. There still isn’t, but that situation is changing. That infrastructure is now the key to the entire future success of the fu-
el cell program. There are currently only 17 retail hydrogen fueling stations operating in California, but the goal at CAFCP is to have 50 such stations op- erating by the end of 2016. That’s still not very many; California is an awful- ly big state. Another target is to eventually have all retail hydrogen extract- ed by using renewable sources — solar and wind power — at self-contained re- fueling stations. As it stands now, the hydrogen is delivered by truck, much the same way that gasoline is distributed. I seriously doubt that I will ever own such a car, both for financial rea-
sons and the fact that the nearest hydrogen fueling station is 95 miles from where I live in Chico. Add to that the fact that our 2006 Honda CR-V still re- liably plugs along showing no signs of needing replacement for at least anoth- er 200,000 miles. When we bought that vehicle 10 years ago, we decided that it would probably be the last new car we would ever buy, and nothing has happened to change that opinion, although those self-driving autonomous cars look awfully tempting. That’s another emerging technology that’s incred- ibly exciting. The car of the future will combine autonomous operation with fuel cell power. Will I live long enough to see that happen? Probably, at least I hope so. r
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
By Jacob Fattal Publisher
Storage:RenewableEnergy’s Achilles Heel
T
he current global focus on generating renewable energy has continually focused a spotlight on the problem of storing it. Battery technology lags far behind semiconductor development, and in fact has not advanced
significantly in decades. The potential benefits are many. According to the journal Energy and Environmental Science, the reduction of air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels would save the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars annually in associated public health costs alone. Renewable energy — solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal — all require
an efficient system of storage that can smooth their output when the source is irregular; at night, a solar-powered home relies on a backup system of batter- ies, or a connection to the power grid. Current battery backup technology, such as Tesla’s Powerwall, a modified version of the lithium ion batteries in- stalled in the company’s cars, are simply cobbled-together assortments of the batteries found in our laptops and smartphones. So far, lithium ion technology, although vastly better than the old nick-
el-cadmium batteries, has not proven effective enough for large-scale use. And because lithium is so volatile, there’s always the danger of fire. For the amount of power generated by a field of wind turbines, other solutions are needed. Ingenious systems are being used today, though they are far from per- fect and are at best, terribly inefficient. Besides electrochemical storage, ener- gy is stored mechanically in flywheels, in underground basalt formations full of compressed air, and in water pumped from a low reservoir to a higher one, which is then allowed to run back down through a hydro turbine generator. These systems, while seemingly simplistic, still cost roughly twice as
much money to store energy than the actual cost of delivered power. It seems that the world of energy storage has been hamstrung, waiting for the next de- velopment to appear. Certainly there are teams of people working on batter- ies, many universities in the U.S. have created wildly futuristic contraptions, such as lithium-air batteries from Dallas University, or gold nanowire batter- ies from the University of California Irvine. Earlier this year, scientists at Po- hang University in South Korea even developed a stainless steel battery with a thin-film electrolyte, which promises to keep a smartphone charged for a week at a time. These incremental steps in battery technology, however, are not full-
scale solutions to our dilemma of storing what we generate from renewable energy sources. As Tesla completes its Gigafactory in Nevada and begins to produce more lithium ion batteries in a year than the entire world produced in 2013, I am reminded of the company’s namesake, Nikola Tesla, the father of hydroelectric power, and wonder whether he would think the extravagant factory a leap forward, or a shocking ex- ample of excess. r
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