Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hydrogen, GM
Just because the overall mood in the advanced automotive technology field has shifted pretty much into a plug-in vehicle direction doesn't mean that hydrogen fuel cells are dead and buried. Even in a place as tailor-made for electric vehicles as Hawai'i, the fight for H2 continues. Today, GM and The Gas Company announced that ten organizations have joined the Hawaii Hydrogen Initiative (H2I), a plan to get around two dozen H2 stations installed on O'ahu by 2015. The deal was first announced in May. The ten new partners are: the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT); U.S. Department of Energy; FuelCell Energy; Aloha Petroleum Ltd; Louis Berger Group; U.S. Pacific Command, supported by the U.S. Pacific Fleet, U.S. Pacific Air Forces, U.S. Army Pacific, and U.S. Marine Forces, Pacific; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; the County of Hawaii; University of California - Irvine, and the University of Hawaii. So, government, education, military and a petroleum company. On the one hand, since the state imports every drop of oil it uses, anything that helps reduce the load is a good thing. Also, given O'ahu's small size, a small number of stations could easily support the 10,000 fuel cell vehicles that The Gas Company says it could easily supply with H2 today. Of course, Oahu's small size also means it's perfect for electric vehicles. This announcement doesn't mean that EV advocates are quietly exiting the state. Nope. Coda Automotive is supposedly going to try to sell vehicles there, as is Better Place. (In 2008, Phoenix declared it would sell cars there in 2009, but that never happened.) On December 30th, local plug-in fans will be hosting an electric car rally - and they hope President Obama and his family will come by during their winter vacation in the islands. For a look at the history of electric vehicles in Hawai'i, read this and this. And, to get one anti-hydrogen perspective from someone in the islands, read this column from the Maui News. He's mad at outgoing governor Linda Lingle and the $10 million she "wasted on the hydrogen economy." 
[Source: GM]
GM announces big Hawaii Hydrogen Initiative plan; plug-in advocates still pushing for electric vehicles originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 12:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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