Drive to hydrogen-fueled autos stalls in New York
In May 2007, a toast was made at Lyndhurst Castle in Tarrytown after two Chevrolet Sequel hydrogen-powered vehicles made automotive history by traveling 300 miles without stopping to refuel. Lawrence Burns, then-vice president for research and development and strategic planning at General Motors Co., raised his glass for “the future of the planet, the future of cell technology and of course the future of our company.”
Months after that ceremony, a hydrogen refueling station was unveiled in White Plains and six Chevrolet Equinox vehicles rolled into the city for use by White Plains officials and the general public in a case study conducted by GM and Shell Hydrogen. As part of the companies”™ Project Driveway study, two more refueling stations were promised and later built at John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens and in the Bronx.
Eight years later, the move to hydrogen fuel cell technology for automobiles ”” which can travel on the alternative fuel at a distance comparable to cars traveling on a full tank of gasoline and emit only water vapor ”” has stalled out in New York.
- A Chevrolet Sequel hydrogen fuel cell vehicle crosses the finish line at Lyndhurst Castle in Tarrytown after an unprecedented 300-mile drive across the state in 2007. File photo
All three refueling stations have been closed for the last few years. The White Plains station on South Kenisco Avenue is being preserved with nitrogen gas, according to Karen Pasquale, senior adviser to White Plains Mayor Thomas M. Roach.
“Full ownership of all equipment transferred to the city,” Pasquale said in an email. She did not respond to questions about the cost of preserving the station and where the Equinox vehicles are being kept.
There is some discussion about converting the station into a compressed natural gas operation, Pasquale said, but added that the conversion “is not being actively worked on at this time.”
The South Kenisco Avenue station cost about $500,000 and was paid for by Shell Hydrogen. The city received $700,000 in grants from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and New York Power Authority to purchase vehicles used for the study.
More recently, though, hydrogen has taken a back seat to other alternative-fuel technologies as the focus of state funding and initiatives.
“Over the past two decades, cars and trucks running on electricity, CNG (compressed natural gas), ethanol, and biodiesel have become increasingly popular in New York,” NYSERDA spokesman Alan Wechsler said in an email.
Of those, electric vehicles have especially taken off with the help of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo”™s Charge NY initiative to expand the use of those cars and recharging stations across the state. The Business Journal recently reported there were about 8,000 electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles registered in the state in 2014 and 523 registered public and private charging stations across the state this year.
One reason for the downshift in hydrogen and uptick in other alternative fuel technologies is cost.
“There are a few challenges for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that are unique to that technology; the biggest is price,” said Adam Ruder, clean transportation program manager at NYSERDA.
Installation costs are substantially higher for hydrogen stations at about $1 million, Ruder said. Adding an ethanol tank to an existing gas station costs about $50,000. Electric recharging stations can range from “a couple thousand dollars” up to $40,000, he said
Toyota”™s hydrogen fuel automobile model that will debut nationally later this year, the 2016 Mirai, has a suggested retail price of $57,500, which Ruder compared to the Nissan Leaf, an electric vehicle, priced at $29,010.
The Mirai and its already-established competitor, Hyundai”™s Tuscon Fuel Cell, are currently only available for leasing to U.S. customers in California. Consumers pay a signing fee and make monthly payments for three years, while hydrogen refueling is free.
“California as a state has demonstrated leadership in providing incentives not only for the vehicles, but also for the building of the infrastructure,” said Morry Markowitz, president of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association. The state has 59 refueling stations in operation and a goal of 100 stations by 2020, according to its website.
“Any state that wants to provide this terrific technology to its consumers is going to have to look at the California model very closely,” Markowitz said.
Doug Roude, managing director of Hydrogen Safety LLC, a Connecticut-based specialist firm in risk management for alternative energy infrastructure, is optimistic that hydrogen has a future in the Northeast.
“After California, the hope is that the tristate area would be a second focus for this type of roll-out,” he said, referring to the vehicle leasing program started by Hyundai and Toyota.
While electric vehicles were a “good first step in getting people weaned off gasoline,” Roude said, “The long-term solution is going to be hydrogen.”