Across the globe, we continue to see good news about fuel cell electric buses (FCEBs) in North America, China, Japan and Europe.
In California, we have 21 FCEBs in operation, more than 15 years of service and more than 2.5 million miles of experience; they perform as well as any conventional bus. In the next few years, California will more than double its fuel cell bus fleet, adding 32.
The California Air Resources Board and the California Energy Commission released the Joint Agency Staff Report on Assembly Bill 8: 2017 Annual Assessment of Time and Cost Needed to Attain 100 Hydrogen Refueling Stations in California that follows two previously published joint reports in accordance with Assembly Bill 8 (AB 8) that was signed into law in 2013.
Thanksgiving will soon be upon us, marking the launch of the holiday season. It also causes us to reflect on our accomplishments, individual and collective, personal and professional.
At the Fuel Cell Partnership, we wanted to express our thanks to the many individuals, organizations, and accomplishments in the hydrogen and fuel cell world that we have encountered over the past year.
On November 8, the Energy Commission issued a “Revised Notice of Proposed Awards” that recommends five additional stations previously recommended for funding by Energy Commission staff. The newly awarded stations are:
California Air Resources Board staff will host a technical discussion in Sacramento to review the most recent updates to the California Hydrogen Infrastructure Tool. CHIT is built in the ArcGIS environment to perform geographically-detailed assessments of need for new hydrogen fueling infrastructure to support the deployment of fuel cell electric vehicles.
Entering its third year, National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day has expanded in the number of events and increased activity on social media, especially from passenger car drivers. And many supporters have pushed beyond the actual day, October 8, to host events or make announcements in the days that followed.
The Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit), a CaFCP member, recently recorded a second history-making event – 25,000 hours of continuous operation of a fuel cell electric bus. Just two years ago, the FCEB power plant set an international record for 20,000 hours of continuous operation.
Nobel laureate and former Energy Secretary gets driven in one of the world's first commercially available fuel cell electric cars to the 232nd ECS meeting for his keynote speech, particularly fitting because electrochemistry was at the heart of enabling this technology. Forty years ago, government, national labs and industry convened to brainstorm options for reducing dependence on foreign oil and the DOE fuel cell program was born.