A big week for the greenies in Japan sees renewable energy technology get equal billing
The launch this year of the world's first production fuel-cell car, the Toyota Mirai, has driven the accelerated growth of hydrogen refuelling station infrastructure development across Japan. And the introduction of Toyota's fuel-cell passenger vehicle to the Japanese market has also served to focus unprecedented attention on this year's International Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Expo at the Big Site complex on Tokyo Bay..
...Regarded as the planet's biggest expo of its type, the fuel cell expo drew some 1580 companies from around the world, participating in five days of lectures, demonstrations of future and existing technologies and test drives of fuel cell cars including the Mirai and Honda Clarity.
Senior engineers from Daimler, Volkswagen, General Motors, Toyota, Iwatani Corporation (energy co) and JX Nippon Oil and Energy updated the gathered industry types and media on the latest developments in fuel cells, hydrogen production and delivery systems and battery technology...
Gas company Taiyo Nippon Sanso Ltd revealed a world-first with its compact portable hydrogen station mounted onto the back of a 10-ton truck. H2 to go- anywhere.
...The question begs. Why is Japan so aggressive in its adoption and development of hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars and the infrastructure to support it? Japanese car companies including Toyota, Nissan and Honda have been developing fuel cell cars for well over 10 years. But it was the earthquake, tsunami wave and resulting nuclear disaster in March 2011 that forced the government to shut down its 54 nuclear reactors and look for alternative forms of energy that stimulated car and energy companies to accelerate hydrogen-based technologies.
The Honda Smart Hydrogen Station- Home fueling of Hydrogen Vehicles
...Up until early 2011, Japan's energy needs were split up into 20 per cent nuclear, 30 per cent coal and the remainder in oil and natural gas. To fill the gap created by the loss of nuclear energy, Japan started importing more oil which has led to higher energy (electricity) prices and higher C02 levels.
So the car industry, energy companies and government came to a collective realisation in late 2011 that diversifying its energy needs, and steering towards hydrogen, gives the country a way out of the higher energy costs and environmental issues. The recent launch of the world's first hydrogen-powered fuel cell car in Japan, the Toyota Mirai has given added impetus and urgency to hydrogen infrastructure development. That is why the country is pushing ahead with plans to build at least 100 hydrogen refueling stations nationwide by the end of 2016...
A Hydrogen Station can be built anywhere there is water and electricity.
With mass production, the cost will nosedive
Tech always gets better and cheaper-that's a 5 megabyte hard drive from 1956 - being loaded via forklift onto plane.
The only exhaust from a Hydrogen Electric Vehicle is water.
Thanks to Toyota, Honda and Hyundai, gasoline is no longer required to get from point a to points b, c and d. It's too bad that Obama cut R&D fuel cell funding when he took office. The US could have led this revolution.
CEA presents a new efficient way of producing hydrogen from water vapor
Researchers at the French agency for nuclear energy and alternative energy CEA (Commissariat à lénergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives), has developed a new much efficient method of producing hydrogen gas. Compared to other methods used, this method significantly reduce the investment and operating costs. And it does so at a very high efficiency indeed, at 90 percent...http://www.ourprg.com/?p=20047
Why do Hydrogen threads bring out the most idiotic comments on the net? It's as if Hydrogen Gas virtually invades some brains and causes mental pollution. While you sat around thinking you were brilliant, Japan and Germany have actually done things to contribute to the future and make themselves energy independent.
Here's a rare American with 10+ years experience in Solar/Hydrogen/Fuel Cells that can explain it much better than I can. I just talked to him last week.
He was featured in a Scientific American article in 2008
Inside the Solar-Hydrogen House: No More Power Bills--Ever A New Jersey resident generates and stores all the power he needs with solar panels and hydrogen
June 19, 2008 -EAST AMWELL, N.J.Mike Strizki has not paid an electric, oil or gas billnor has he spent a nickel to fill up his Mercury Sablein nearly two years. Instead, the 51-year-old civil engineer makes all the fuel he needs using a system he built in the capacious garage of his home, which employs photovoltaic (PV) panels to turn sunlight into electricity that is harnessed in turn to extract hydrogen from tap water...
Oh look- it's the Liberty'sflame post whore Too Conservative- who can't let a thread go by without a "contribution". Thanks!
I am not embarrassed that I post on a lot of threads. Many of them would never get so much as a single comment if I didn't post one. And often a single comment, particularly an opinionated one, will "prime the pump" and other posters will read and contribute, perhaps marshal other resources to debate a topic or elucidate the debate.
I am also not embarrassed that I make considerable effort to make sure that I actually post directly to the article's topic and read at least half of its text content before I comment. Some posters will take any thread and post wildly off-topic in the very first comment. Others rarely post to the article at all and instead get chatty and just drag the thread off into Chitchatland.
These are news articles, not some daft Rorschach test where the purpose is to glance at a title or picture and then free-associate any blasted thing that floats into your head.
The decrease in cost of PV modules isn't quite as dramatic as the decrease in computer chip cost but it's close.
Your link does nothing at all to support your claim. The assertion is ridiculous on its face. First, a lot of young people have only a dim idea of mechanical hard drives. You may have heard about this thing called solid-state drives. Hard drives are increasingly for grannies running Windows XP or for data centers.
As for the advances in digital, there is no rational comparison at all. The Apple Watch going on sale today has more processing power than all the computers around the world in the 1950's (or 1960's) combined. And it has more storage. And is thousands of times faster. And contains a hi-res color display unknown in the Fifties. And has wireless Bluetooth and a touchscreen. And a plethora of other internal sensors.
If anything, I greatly understated how ridiculous it is to compare hydrogen development to digital tech development.
Why do Hydrogen threads bring out the most idiotic comments on the net? It's as if Hydrogen Gas virtually invades some brains and causes mental pollution. While you sat around thinking you were brilliant, Japan and Germany have actually done things to contribute to the future and make themselves energy independent.
You're very insecure, aren't you? LOL.
Before you brag too much on Germany and Japan, keep in mind that the fuel cell was, like so many other things, developed by America for NASA although some pet projects date back to the 19th century.
You need to read up on the actual technology and the many problems it still has.
Wiki is replete with choice quotes you can't dismiss with fanboi quotes and some YouBoobery from some guy in NJ who is operating on donations and grants.
Hydrogen powered vehicles do date back to the 1950's, you know. This is nothing new.
Due to Germany's vast (failed) investments in solar, they are building coal generation plants at breakneck speeds. And both Germany and Britain have spent heavily with hospitals and high-tech industries buying diesel generators because the hospitals and industry leaders complain that precise regulation of utility electricity needed for manufacturing and delicate instruments is forcing them to deal with unreliability issues and expensive devices wearing out more quickly than they should or that sensitive devices in medicine and industry operate out of spec and unreliably unless power is very strictly regulated to international standards.
So this great march to a hydrogen paradise you picture is far from reality. What these countries are doing to meet their expanding energy needs simply does not match your claims.
FWIW, I think the Japs are most likely to make this technology a success. We should keep in mind that hydrogen fuel cell technology gets touted as the energy of the future each and every year for the last 20 years. It may finally become economically viable but, in an era of plentiful natural gas and a world that is full of oil, its victory in the short term is anything but guaranteed.
Here's his website: http://hydrogenhouseproject.org/
Complete with the inevitable photo of the ever-optimistic-no-matter-how-many-failures Ed Begley Junior. He's endorsed every turkey alt-energy project for the past 30 years or so. Even if his electric cars most often lack the power to climb up and down hills in San Francisco, leaving him stranded after a few miles. LOL.
I notice this is not presented as comparable in cost to traditional electrical power generation. The website mentions that "With grants from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, as well as his own personal funds, Strizki was able to complete the Hydrogen House, the first solar-hydrogen residence in North America."
Nowhere are we presented with a list of the expenses in building this house or his car's fuel cell. And if it really is cheaper (for people who don't get their costs paid by government or by using laws to force others to subsidize hydrogen), then why doesn't his website just post how much this NJ guy has actually spent on the house/car? Also from the site: "Our organization accepts both cash and equipment donations, all of which are directed toward furthering the Hydrogen House Project's mission." So, if we only get others to pay our fuel/electricity costs, our own energy consumption would look pretty sweet too.
Hint: it's wildly expensive, at least for now.
I hope you continue to think that you're the definition of brilliant- it's somewhat amusing.
My goodness, what a delusional fanboi you are. My experience of such angry missionaries as yourself is that they make no converts at all and merely preach to those who share their own bias.
I really did enjoy your bitter tirade to try to blame me for the failures of hydrogen and its current lack of appeal, all because I merely observed that a 5MB 1950s hard drive does not prove that the Golden Age Of Hydrogen is upon us.