Yesterday I went on the RV1 bus, and perhaps for the first time went on a hydrogen bus.
See http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgur...=1733#imgdii=_
Elsewhere comments have been made about the difficulties of incorporating renewable electricity generation into the National Grid, and how it might reduce the efficiency of the system because of the need for stand-by plants.
One possible use for such renewable generation (e.g PV and wind) could be to generate electricity for electrolysis to produce hydrogen. This might not be very efficient, but would if adopted presumably allow cleaner operation of some vehicles.
I'm not sure how the London buses which run on hydrogen actually work. I suspect they simply use internal combustion engines. An alternative method would be to use fuel cell technology, in which case electric motors could be used. There is at least one fuel cell car now available, though it's very expensive. See recent news items and reviews for this - http://www.hyundai.co.uk/about-us/en...l%20cell%20car
I think the use of hydrogen is discussed in Mackay's book, and I don't think he's very encouraging. As I've said, it may not be at all efficient, but on the other hand it does allow energy storage which is one of the major problems for renewable energy generation. However, storage for vehicles could also be done by charging up batteries, and having a battery swap system, and just possibly that could work, but would require very large scaling up to be viable. If Formula 1 teams can change a tyre in 4 seconds it might be possible to change a complete battery set in a minute at appropriate service stations.
See http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgur...=1733#imgdii=_
Elsewhere comments have been made about the difficulties of incorporating renewable electricity generation into the National Grid, and how it might reduce the efficiency of the system because of the need for stand-by plants.
One possible use for such renewable generation (e.g PV and wind) could be to generate electricity for electrolysis to produce hydrogen. This might not be very efficient, but would if adopted presumably allow cleaner operation of some vehicles.
I'm not sure how the London buses which run on hydrogen actually work. I suspect they simply use internal combustion engines. An alternative method would be to use fuel cell technology, in which case electric motors could be used. There is at least one fuel cell car now available, though it's very expensive. See recent news items and reviews for this - http://www.hyundai.co.uk/about-us/en...l%20cell%20car
I think the use of hydrogen is discussed in Mackay's book, and I don't think he's very encouraging. As I've said, it may not be at all efficient, but on the other hand it does allow energy storage which is one of the major problems for renewable energy generation. However, storage for vehicles could also be done by charging up batteries, and having a battery swap system, and just possibly that could work, but would require very large scaling up to be viable. If Formula 1 teams can change a tyre in 4 seconds it might be possible to change a complete battery set in a minute at appropriate service stations.
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