Electric cars are great. Let’s be real for a minute and not be petrol-head fanboys. The idea of a car that runs purely on electricity, has the same range as a gasoline or diesel powered car and has equal or better performance is a fantastic one. Not only is it more efficient of a means of transportation but it’s cleaner for the environment. However, if infrastructure doesn’t change, we’re going to reach a point with electric cars where the energy we use to charge them isn’t clean anymore. As EV sales grow and grow and grow, the need for fossil fuel-derived electricity goes up. So some companies are developing ways to create more clean electricity and one UK-based company is using hydrogen.
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AFC Energy is based in the UK and has been working on a project called CH2ARGE. It’s been 10 years in the making and the idea is to use hydrogen fuel cells to charge electric cars. So it allows both alternative fuel technologies to work together to make a cleaner future.
According to AFC Energy, “…the UK government has stated that 50% of new car sales will be EVs by 2030 which will see nine million EVs on the road. B y 2040, 100% of new car sales are planned to be EVs leading to the entirety of the UK’s fleet of 36 million cars becoming EVs.”
AFC claims that the UK National Grid estimates an increase in 8-gigawatts will be necessary to fulfill the needs of electric cars by that time. “If one in 10 of the EVs is being recharged simultaneously the UK’s future fleet of 36 million cars would have a peak demand surge of 25. 7 GW based on an average EV battery of 57 kWh. This maximum peak demand equates to approximately half the UK current generational requirement and is the equivalent of 7.9 new nuclear power stations or 17,100 wind turbines.”
In the UK, there are companies working on power-to-gas renewable hydrogen, which is when wind or solar energy is used to split hydrogen from water. This renewable hydrogen could be used to supplement renewable energy to charge electric cars. “The AFC Energy fuel cell can be deployed as part of a “hydrogen battery” scheme. When grid demand is low, excess power generated from renewable sources, such as wind or solar, can be diverted to a water electrolyser for hydrogen generation. The produced hydrogen can then be stored and optimally released to our fuel cells at periods of peak demand (with higher tariffs), to support grid power requirements, when required.” said AFC.
The first car that AFC Energy used to sample this hydrogen-based charging system was a BMW i8 and the brand has been working with BMW i Division cars. So this could end the long debate about which alternative fuel route BMW should go — electric or hybrid. The answer is both.
[Source: Clean Technica]
Yay, conversion efficiency losses and costs! That’s what’s really needed for energy storage.
Yes, and do these systems need purified water? Or can they use ocean water? One is more expensive. Where is the supply of water?
The first byproduct is oxygen. What are you going to do with it, just release it?
And of course, is this really just a way to get the low demand methane. ( hydrogen from methane ), into the electric power stream, to safe frackers from the economics of Solar & Battery are now the cheapest energy sources on earth, aside from Wind & Battery.
Good on i! Toyota, Hyundai, Honda have each made major investments in hydrogen, Japan are using 2020 Olympics to showcase hydrogen economy, S. Korea committed to 6+ million hydrogen vehicles by 2040.
The small Japanese investment in hydrogen was really paid for by California taxpayers through their CARB program.
Hyundai (not Japanese) are investing billions in hydrogen. So California are hosting the 2020 Tokyo Olympics? Interesting…
This will not lead to more clean electricity, but actually quite the
opposite. Creating hydrogen requires a lot of energy by itself so one
ends up with less energy stored in hydrogen than used to create it.
Furthermore, compressing hydrogen for use in cars (at 700bar) costs
energy, and converting hydrogen back to electricity also costs a lot of
energy. So in the end one has lost a lot of energy and gained exactly
nothing.
“By that time” electric cars will not be charged simlultaneously, but
rather be smart charged when demand is low. Electric cars will actually
be perfect stabilizers for the powergrid as they will flatten the ups
and downs in demand.
I don’t quite understand how they want to leverage the above numbers in
their advantage anyway, as converting electricity to hydrogen (and back)
requires much more power stations and wind turbines.
There is no such thing as “excess power generated from renewable
sources”. And if there is it would not make sense to waste it on
creating hydrogen.
You misunderstand what AFC did. They created a hydrogen power source to
charge an i8, not a (hydrogen) i8. Wat AFC does has nothing to do with
hydrogen cars.
Hydrogen in cars doesn’t make sense as a battery has a much higher
energy density (and is still evolving while hydrogen stays at 700bar),
is cheaper per kilometer and soon battery based cars will charge faster
(in km/sec) than hydrogen based cars.
“Electric cars are great” – No. They are not. And no matter how often you try to sell us that stuff, it wont get any better.