The fact that the lack of fueling infrastructure is one of the biggest hurdles for hydrogen-powered vehicles is very well known to both the auto industry and the U.S. government, which has been trying to promote them in the past couple of years, with laws and incentives that include alternative fuel tax exemption and fuel cell motor vehicle tax credit. That's why there have been various initiatives in the past for expanding the infrastructure, with automakers collaborating with energy companies and government agencies to fund the construction of more fueling stations across the country, and support the adoption of fuel-cell vehicles.
In 2013, the U.S. Energy Department started the H2USA program, which gathered various car manufacturers, gas suppliers, and the hydrogen and fuel cell industries to create a strategy for resolving the infrastructure issue, and now, the Fuel Cell Technologies Office in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which is part of the Energy Department, decided to establish the H2FIRST project, that will build on existing efforts for reducing the costs of construction and installation of fueling stations.
For starters, the H2FIRST project will try to help create affordable materials and components that are needed for the construction of fueling stations, by conducting tests and numerical simulations. Other goals of this program include integration of hydrogen and the power grid, developing more efficient hydrogen fueling stations, and acceleration of hydrogen fueling station deployment.
The Fuel Cell Technologies Office will collaborate Sandia National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which will be in charge of creating the designs and producing the materials for the fueling stations. Sandia, which has a lot of experience in developing hydrogen materials and engineering solutions, will develop and test different innovative technologies, and the project will also use NREL's Energy Systems Integration Facility and Distributed Energy Resources Test Facility, to analyze hydrogen infrastructure systems and components.
In addition to these organizations, the project will include a few state agencies in California, which has been at the forefront of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles ever since the technology was first introduced, and is bound to be the biggest market for hydrogen cars. Japanese car maker Toyota plans to start selling hydrogen cars within the next year or two. They have developed a fuel cell sedan, and a hydrogen vehicle from their South Korean counterpart, Hyundai, is already available for leasing to California residents. Another Japanese automaker, Honda, is selling the FCX Clarity, a hydrogen-powered sedan, in Southern California. Honda has also partnered up with General Motors to develop new hydrogen vehicle models together.
At the moment, there are 9 public hydrogen fueling stations in the state, and work has already started on additional 18 stations which are supposed to be ready for use within the next 5 years. In the next 10 years, an additional 100 stations are expected to be put in place. The H2FIRST is an important part of the efforts for reducing greenhouse emissions, by contributing to the expansion of a fueling infrastructure, and helping make hydrogen vehicles a more viable alternative to conventional cars.
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