The future may be electric vehicles - but storage powered by batteries or hydrogen fuel cells?
A very interesting article below summarising the strengths and weaknesses of both technologies. Whilst hydrogen is currently more energy dense (better range for the mass) and quicker to refuel (around 5 mins) than batteries, the infrastructure and distribution of hydrogen is more expensive (end-to-end infrastructure cost at about 8x the cost of battery power). Some smaller countries like Distribution energy loss for hydrogen can be around 40% whilst electricity distribution across the US grid can amount to 5% loss. Japan may well find that hydrogen works better for them than battery power.
Battery power's merits are often that there is already electrical grid infrastructure in place almost everywhere, even from homes, but the downside is the time to charge.
So the race continues as to whether hydrogen's cost/infrastructure will beat battery's improving efficiency/charge times, dropping costs, and scale of distribution.
The easiest way to measure success is not in which is the most efficient technology but rather which technology is being adopted the most (remember the Betamax vs VHS wars where VHS won but was not the best technology). Right now battery takeup seems to be the fastest growing but hydrogen is by no means beaten and could still come up with improvements to tip the scales. It may be too that some countries adopt hydrogen (like Japan) and others go for battery power. Hydrogen may also make a lot of sense for air travel where weight and efficiency are of prime importance.
Read the full article and watch the video at https://cleantechnica.com/2018/08/11/hydrogen-fuel-cell-battery-electric-vehicles-technology-rundown/. The 15 min video really does explain the differences in easy to undersatnd terms.
Do you think battery or hydrogen fuel cell energy storage will win in powering EV's in the future?
#hydrogen #EV
from Danie van der Merwe - Google+ Posts https://ift.tt/2MEHb2v
via IFTTT
A very interesting article below summarising the strengths and weaknesses of both technologies. Whilst hydrogen is currently more energy dense (better range for the mass) and quicker to refuel (around 5 mins) than batteries, the infrastructure and distribution of hydrogen is more expensive (end-to-end infrastructure cost at about 8x the cost of battery power). Some smaller countries like Distribution energy loss for hydrogen can be around 40% whilst electricity distribution across the US grid can amount to 5% loss. Japan may well find that hydrogen works better for them than battery power.
Battery power's merits are often that there is already electrical grid infrastructure in place almost everywhere, even from homes, but the downside is the time to charge.
So the race continues as to whether hydrogen's cost/infrastructure will beat battery's improving efficiency/charge times, dropping costs, and scale of distribution.
The easiest way to measure success is not in which is the most efficient technology but rather which technology is being adopted the most (remember the Betamax vs VHS wars where VHS won but was not the best technology). Right now battery takeup seems to be the fastest growing but hydrogen is by no means beaten and could still come up with improvements to tip the scales. It may be too that some countries adopt hydrogen (like Japan) and others go for battery power. Hydrogen may also make a lot of sense for air travel where weight and efficiency are of prime importance.
Read the full article and watch the video at https://cleantechnica.com/2018/08/11/hydrogen-fuel-cell-battery-electric-vehicles-technology-rundown/. The 15 min video really does explain the differences in easy to undersatnd terms.
Do you think battery or hydrogen fuel cell energy storage will win in powering EV's in the future?
#hydrogen #EV
from Danie van der Merwe - Google+ Posts https://ift.tt/2MEHb2v
via IFTTT
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