Batteries vs. Fuel Cells: A Tale of Unequal Federal Funding
Both electric and fuel-cell cars are set to hit the market, but only the first one is getting any direct federal support. The Department of Energy is investing not only in battery electric cars, but in the plants that make their batteries. And yes, the DOE is also supporting hydrogen cars, but on a more basic research level—and with a fraction of the money.
This is a little confusing, because fuel-cell cars are electrics at heart. In fact, they can use the same electric motors and share battery technology, too. But they diverge radically when it comes to cost and infrastructure. As a variety of companies come forward to wire communities for EV charging—Better Place (led by the charismatic Shai Agassi), ECOtality, Aerovironment, Coulomb and more—hydrogen stations remain few and far between, and it’s not being commercialized yet.
Fuel-cell advocates succeeded in beating back the Department of Energy’s attempt to cut hydrogen funding by more than 60 percent, and, in 2010, $190 million will be awarded. This is a pittance compared to the money plowed into batteries and electric cars: $10 billion in 2009 alone, with quite a bit more coming.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu discovered that hydrogen has some powerful advocates in Congress. After they rebuffed his efforts to cut funding, he appeared to change his tune. “OK,” he said, “if the goal is to try and get them into vehicles, let’s design a program to actually try and do that as best we can.” The hydrogen community hopes he’s sincere.
One major hydrogen supporter, C. E. “Sandy” Thomas, president of H2Gen Innovations, wants to see action to match the DOE’s new rhetoric. “I am assuming that the energy secretary will now support the hydrogen infrastructure required to carry the vehicle program forward,” he said. “Certainly not to the degree of overkill on battery plants before the battery technology has been developed, but hopefully enough to keep up the momentum.”
Hydrogen advocates want to stop fighting for respect and funding in the U.S.; they say they’d would like to see these two complementary technologies supporting each other, not competing. Byron McCormick, who recently retired from his post heading the General Motors fuel cell program, says ”EVs and hydrogen fuel cells should work together. EVs can be for short in-city trips and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for general-purpose use. Also, we should recognize that hydrogen is necessary for us to realize a high renewable content(, because wind and solar are variable and intermittent. Batteries can’t store very much electricity, but hydrogen can and does–we’re doing it right now in the petroleum industry.”
“Battery vehicles need hydrogen to make family-sized cars that go more than 50 to 100 miles on one charge,” says Patrick Serfass of the National Hydrogen Association, ”and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles need batteries to quickly capture the energy from braking and slowing down.
The auto companies, of course, have made huge investments in hydrogen—General Motors paid out $1.5 billion it probably wishes it had today. But the money poured into this paid off: fuel-cell technology has progressed faster, in terms of energy output and ever-more-compact designs, than batteries have. Engineers are excited, but it’s still not translating into a viable plan for widespread use of hydrogen cars—that’s where battery cars hold all the trumps.
Government support for hydrogen isn’t an issue in the rest of the world. Europe and Japan are in the lead, and Korea is also a contender. According to the Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter, no less than eight major companies in Germany (including Daimler, energy powerhouse Vattenfall, oil companies Total, Shell and Austria’s OMV, and the liquid hydrogen specialist Linde Group) have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on a national hydrogen fueling network.
The Germans think they could see a few hundred thousand fuel-cell vehicles on European roads by 2015. That’s a lot—the exact number that Daimler predicted it would field by 2004. But even though there are only 30 hydrogen stations in Germany now, this time it’s serious. Some 25 more could be built in the next two years, with a national rollout (some earlier estimates predicted as many as 1,000 stations at a cost of $2.5 billion, but this will probably be scaled back) by 2015.
In Japan, Toyota’s president, Akio Toyoda sees EVs and hydrogen as part of the same continuum. In fact, he sees the same basic division of use as McCormick and Serfass. “In the future we may use electric vehicles for short-distance travel and fuel-cell cars for long drives,” Toyoda said. Toyota’s battery car rollout is set for 2012 and its hydrogen car as early as late 2014. The vehicles should help meet the new Japanese government’s target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.
The DOE appears to be getting into gear with support for hydrogen, but it’s still far more committed to electric battery cars. Hydrogen advocates worry about a “fuel-cell gap,” and this one is closer to reality than the President Kennedy’s missile gap was in the 1960s.
Jim Motavalli is the author of Forward Drive: The Race to Build Clean Cars for the Future, among other books. He has been covering the environmental side of the auto industry for more than a decade, and writes regularly on those topics for the New York Times.
This isn't about ME wanting an EV to enjoy driving. This is about wanting ZEVs available for the masses. So I don't have to explain to my daughter that yes, we kept burning fossil fuels even though we thoroughly understood the consequences of doing so.
BNET User Analysis