Monday, August 25, 2008

Cross country trip is a bit bumpy for hydrogen based cars

Hydrogen flatbed

American’s are begging for alternative energy sources as of late, especially in their cars if it’ll save them money over time (see the several months you have to wait for a new Prius). Hydrogen to many seems to be the next sustainable energy source. Only one problem: there are only 60 stations for hydrogen across the country, only two of which do not require an appointment. Thanks to this, the country’s first hydrogen cross country trip required flatbed trucks to carry the car when it ran out of fuel. Part of the point of the trip was apparently to show that in order for hydrogen to become viable more stations are needed, and I guess they accomplished that. Traveling 1,000 miles or more on a flatbed truck severely increases the carbon footprint of hydrogen cars.

It seems the best we can hope for is to have 2 million hydrogen vehicles on the road by 2020. I don’t know about you, but that seems to take quite a while. With numbers like that, the wait for an eventual partially solar powered Prius might just be worth it.

Read [Reuters] Via [Gizmodo]

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