DOE’s 2010 Budget Cuts
It’s been an interesting 30 days. On April 9, Honda’s wondrous FCX Clarity was named the World Green Car of the Year at the New York International Auto Show. Less than a month later, on May 7, Energy Secretary Chu proposed eliminating the program designed to make sure the U.S. reaps the environmental and energy security benefits of fuel cell vehicles, and that U.S. companies can meet the competition with their own models.
Now that the budget is out, word is circulating that the Chu proposal to cut $100 million from the hydrogen-fuel cell budget came at the last minute. The President’s Office of Management and Budget had approved full funding for the hydrogen program, but proposed cuts in nuclear and coal programs. The Department of Energy appealed, and proposed to move the money out of hydrogen and into those clean, green, benign pathways of coal and nuclear power. Go figure.
But it’s not that simple. Dr. Chu made it clear that he believes in the battery pathway for vehicles. The benefits of this pathway depend largely on “greening” the grid, which will take decades. Meantime we still get more than half our electricity from coal in the U.S. The Energy Information Administration, a DOE agency, estimates we will still be getting half (47%) of our power from coal in 2030 and the amount of coal fired electricity will grow by 20% over the next 20 years.
As an advocate for EVs in the wars in California in the 1990’s I can also say that battery vehicles are tough to sell to consumers. Yes, they ought to be easier. And I still believe battery EVs can fill an important market niche. Maybe something has changed that justifies Chu’s fresh optimism. But until the battery advocates all start buying battery EVs I’ll be a skeptic.
Bob Rose, Executive Director, US Fuel Cell Council
John
May 10, 2009 | 1:35 PMI disagree with Chu’s decision to remove Hydrogen R&D out of the 2010 budget, but if the US isn’t aggressive with a hydrogen technology plan, other countries will lead. Instead of buying oil from other countries we will be buying hydrogen, hydrogen technology, and related products in the future. Shortly fuel cells will cost less due to low cost replacement catylsts (removal of platinum/paladium precisous metals) and we should be making use of all energy sources as we diversify.
Centralized power and a new smart grid is very important, but adding decentralized power generation is also key to our energy independence. As we install more Wind and Solar farms we will need to Store and Move energy short-term without a smart grid and that equates to using Hydrogen Generators local to the installations. By producing decentralized power with today’s Solar and Wind Hydrogen technology, we will over time, diversify our sources and remove transportation costs out of the cost equation. This Hydrogen could be then delivered to local distribution stations or stored for use in fuel cells for stationary and mobile applications. You just shouldn’t plan massive Solar and Wind expansion projects without this kind of storage and distribution plan component. Hydrogenics (HYGS) is one of the key companies supplying these Hydrogen Generators and Fuel Cells, now involved in several like projects outside of the US. Today’s technology for today’s decentralized power.