Whistler to get 20 hydrogen buses
The provincial government pledged $45 million Monday for a hydrogen bus fleet to service Whistler in time for the 2010 Olympics.
The 20 buses will be developed by a private company and are expected to be operating in 2009. The money will also go towards developing hydrogen fuelling stations in Whistler and Victoria.
$2.25m per bus. That would get you at least six diesels or maybe three trolleys. This is an extreme example of what I said recently about alt fuel buses producing a smaller bus fleet.
This of course is not really about transport at all. It’s all about window dressing. Potemkin villages to impress the Olympic visitors. It will not make the slightest bit of difference to air quality or greenhouse gas emissions, but it will enable Gordon to pretend to be green to Arnie and the other governors. (Arnie, by the way is not the ally we had hoped. He is pushing freeways over high speed trains in California but I must not get distracted)
Hydrogen is not a fuel. It is a very inefficient storage mechanism to allow for electric energy to be applied to a moving vehicle. Hydrogen is a by product of all kinds of chemical plants - but that is not clean enough for fuel cells. Tonnes are thrown away by a plant in North Vancouver. So it is made by electrically splitting water apart and then “reassembling” it later. If the electricity is hydro this is pretty well emission free - although damns and even run of the river are not the green things we once held them to be. They have environmental impacts too. But this is a pretty inefficient way of storing electricity. Batteries (which have been extensively researched) basically weigh too much and waste a lot of energy as heat. Capacitors were going to be good, but fuel cells have centre stage right now. And while in terms of energy density they have some a long way, they are still not the silver bullet. Hydrogen being very difficult and expensive to store and lug around. Despite being the most abundant element on the planet.
The plan also involves an additional $34 million to be provided jointly by the federal and provincial governments, for B.C. Transit to operate the fleet over a five-year period.
Just what you would expect. No long term commitment to get more transit service to where it is desperately needed. No money for more transit service for the suburbs, or low income areas, or native reserves, or people with disabilities. Or pockets of high unemployment. Or places where there are jobs but no-one to fill them. These are not governments’ priorities. They just want to do a buck and wing on the world stage for two weeks, and give some more subsidies to businesses that cannot make a dollar in the marketplace.
Why so negative? It’s a step in the right direction! What kind of car do you drive?
Actually what they should do is build a trolley busline to Whistler, then it runs on electricity. And you could power it with the passengers pedalling stationary bikes on the bus. Ya, that’s it, that’s the ticket!
^well the games are supposed to promote athleticism…
I drive a 1995 Dodge Caravan and what has that to do with anything?
It is not a “step in the right direction” it is a silly waste of money. Hydrogen is not yet ready for prime time - as the hydrogen vehicle makers at this week’s conference/trade show were quick to point out. And it is instructive that governments are expected to absorb most of the R&D costs. If this was such a good idea, government could not get near it for all the elbowing by the auto makers. Who seem strangely reluctant to leap aboard. Even Toyota, who beat them all to hybrids.
We could have had a train to Whistler still if the BC government had not been so keen to sell the family silver. And the hydrogen buses will not be in intercity service but local transit around Whistler village.
Now if someone wants to start selling hybrid conversions for old minivans, sign me up today!
Smelly:
“passengers pedalling stationary bikes on the bus”
direct drive is more energy efficient
http://www.flickr.com/photos/t6hawk/482326999/