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https://inews.co.uk/news/millions-s...-lack-fuel-3694074?ito=link_share_article-top
Councils have spent millions on hydrogen buses so plagued with faults that many vehicles have been left trapped in depots for months at a time. Liverpool, Birmingham and Aberdeen Councils are among those that have faced challenges with their hydrogen bus fleets, including high maintenance costs and a lack of fuel supply.
At least 139 hydrogen buses have been purchased by local authorities for around £500,000 each, as part of trials of the new technology in recent years. However, experts told The i Paper problems faced by councils which have forced dozens of vehicles off the road, have been “utterly predictable” and urged authorities to focus on electric buses instead.
Some suggested hydrogen trials had taken place due to industry lobbying, with several councils having received funding from the oil and gas industry to help fund hydrogen buses.
David Cebon, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Cambridge, claimed the trials, which are often supported by taxpayers, are “way too expensive” and “the hydrogen supply is not there”. He said: “I’ve got a list of 27 failed hydrogen bus projects around the world and it’s just the same story again and again.”
Interesting data point from the article:
Hydrogen bus trials have been taking place in the UK for 20 years. In 2005, Transport for London (TfL) took part in a scheme alongside nine other European cities with funding from a group including oil-giant BP.
Since then cities across the UK and the world have experimented with hydrogen for their bus networks, but many of these trials have hit the same stumbling blocks, including high costs and a lack of reliable hydrogen supply.
The most recent UK trials have taken place in Liverpool, Birmingham, Crawley, Aberdeen and London. Dozens of buses involved have been off the road since last summer, including 25 in Aberdeen and 20 in Liverpool.
I had no idea that they'd been at it this long!!!
139 busses @ 500,000 pounds each is $69.5 million pounds. That's a pretty considerable investment.
As I've noted in other threads, government putting money into hydrogen has been a common theme, it's an industry borne by subsidy and when those subsidies are tempered or removed, collapse follows. As noted above, it's often fossil fuel companies pushing for these investments, with Shell as an example in California, but there have been ups and downs there as well, such as the complete removal of all of Shell's filling stations in California, pretty much killing the ability to fuel FCEV's.
As @alarmguy noted in another thread, forklifts have been a popular point of investment by major companies with hydrogen. It will be quite interesting to watch if this is a space it actually succeeds in. Batteries, so far, have been winning in everything from cars to grid storage.
Councils have spent millions on hydrogen buses so plagued with faults that many vehicles have been left trapped in depots for months at a time. Liverpool, Birmingham and Aberdeen Councils are among those that have faced challenges with their hydrogen bus fleets, including high maintenance costs and a lack of fuel supply.
At least 139 hydrogen buses have been purchased by local authorities for around £500,000 each, as part of trials of the new technology in recent years. However, experts told The i Paper problems faced by councils which have forced dozens of vehicles off the road, have been “utterly predictable” and urged authorities to focus on electric buses instead.
Some suggested hydrogen trials had taken place due to industry lobbying, with several councils having received funding from the oil and gas industry to help fund hydrogen buses.
David Cebon, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Cambridge, claimed the trials, which are often supported by taxpayers, are “way too expensive” and “the hydrogen supply is not there”. He said: “I’ve got a list of 27 failed hydrogen bus projects around the world and it’s just the same story again and again.”
Interesting data point from the article:
Hydrogen bus trials have been taking place in the UK for 20 years. In 2005, Transport for London (TfL) took part in a scheme alongside nine other European cities with funding from a group including oil-giant BP.
Since then cities across the UK and the world have experimented with hydrogen for their bus networks, but many of these trials have hit the same stumbling blocks, including high costs and a lack of reliable hydrogen supply.
The most recent UK trials have taken place in Liverpool, Birmingham, Crawley, Aberdeen and London. Dozens of buses involved have been off the road since last summer, including 25 in Aberdeen and 20 in Liverpool.
I had no idea that they'd been at it this long!!!
139 busses @ 500,000 pounds each is $69.5 million pounds. That's a pretty considerable investment.
As I've noted in other threads, government putting money into hydrogen has been a common theme, it's an industry borne by subsidy and when those subsidies are tempered or removed, collapse follows. As noted above, it's often fossil fuel companies pushing for these investments, with Shell as an example in California, but there have been ups and downs there as well, such as the complete removal of all of Shell's filling stations in California, pretty much killing the ability to fuel FCEV's.
As @alarmguy noted in another thread, forklifts have been a popular point of investment by major companies with hydrogen. It will be quite interesting to watch if this is a space it actually succeeds in. Batteries, so far, have been winning in everything from cars to grid storage.
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