Welcome new readers of RMP’s quarterly H2 infrastructure report. Each quarter we look back on the major stories related to hydrogen infrastructure advancements and we compare the current AFDC database to the AFDC database in the prior quarter to see what has changed. The AFDC database is updated by the US Dept of Energy & can be found by clicking here. RMP uses the US Department of Energy database as our primary data source for our interactive map of hydrogen infrastructure in the USA & Canada. Please check out RMP’s constantly updated map of North American hydrogen infrastructure by clicking here. Ok, on with the report…
The big story this quarter are the five big Class 8 Kenworth/Toyota fuel cell trucks going into service at the Ports of Los Angeles & Long Beach on June 7, 2021 (featured image). Also going into service this month were two high capacity hydrogen truck refueling stations operated by Shell Hydrogen to refuel these big rigs. These big rigs & hydrogen refueling stations are part of an $82.5 million project to expand the ports’ use of near-zero and zero-emissions equipment. Five more Class 8 trucks will be delivered soon making 10 the total number of hydrogen fuel cell trucks operating at the ports & in the Inland Empire area.
The two high capacity truck refueling locations are owned & operated by Shell Hydrogen and they’re located in Wilmington California (at the Port) and Ontario California which is 54 miles northeast of the Port. The trucks have a range of 300 miles with full capacity loads and can be fully refueled to that range with zero emissions hydrogen in about 15 minutes or less with no stress on the electricity grid. The Toyota hydrogen fuel cell powertrain systems on all five of these trucks are built right here in Ann Arbor Michigan at Toyota’s North American R&D Headquarters. The trucks themselves are assembled in Washington. These zero emissions heavy duty Class 8 trucks going into service mark a milestone event in heavy transportation.
The other big storyline this quarter is Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announcing the “Energy Earth Shot” initiative for clean hydrogen. Under the “Energy Earthshots” initiative unveiled 7 June, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm issued a call for “all hands-on-deck innovation, collaboration, and acceleration” for scaling up production, storage, delivery, and end-use of clean hydrogen in the US to make it affordable.
Specifically, the DOE seeks input on “viable hydrogen demonstration and deployment projects from companies & entities in the green energy production business that enable clean hydrogen production, infrastructure, and end-use.” The hydrogen energy earth shot has the ambition of reducing the price of green hydrogen to $1.50/kg. One kilogram of hydrogen has an energy equivalence to one gallon of gasoline.
Hydrogen Highlight Links RMP Catalogued Q2-2021:
4/7/2021 – H2View article about HTEC in British Columbia with lower cost hydrogen CAD$12.75/kg (USD$10.15/kg). HTEC has three stations in the BC area and you can find all three on RMP’s map.
https://www.h2-view.com/story/htecs-british-columbia-hydrogen-stations-retailing-at-10-15-per-kg/
4/23/2021 – Investors.com publishes a look at hydrogen through the financial lens.
https://www.investors.com/news/fuel-cell-stocks-and-hydrogen-power-may-be-near-a-big-breakthrough/
4/23/2021 – Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, announced new goals to reduce the cost of green hydrogen by 80% before 2030.
4/24/2021 – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announces funding available for hydrogen fueling station construction. Air Liquide already has one station in New York in operation (Hempstead, NY), one station under construction (Bronx, NY), and one station in New York planned (Farmingville, NY). RMP is conjecturing this will be a top story this year as Air Liquide announces these stations open to the public and retail sales can begin. This will allow Toyota & Hyundai to sell hydrogen fuel cells into America’s East Coast. All three of these stations and surrounding stations in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maryland can be found on RMP’s map.
5/5/2021 – Washington local paper Chronline.com talks about the 100% renewable production facility in Wenatchee, Washington on the Columbia River. This article should be loaded to the map location specific information. Also talks about Washington having its first hydrogen refueling station in 2022. The Wenatchee production location in Washington can be found on RMP’s map.
5/5/2021 – Studio City hydrogen station opens with 808kg capacity & two H70 nozzles and 1 H35 nozzle. Obviously, this station can be found on RMP’s map.
https://cafcp.org/blog/studio-city-hydrogen-station-opens
5/2/21 – Tesla Joy Tweet on long lines at the Culver City supercharger on Sunday May 2, 2021. Good comment thread too. Very interesting to watch Tesla fans realize that BEV charging is not scaling well even at less than 2% adoption. Yikes.
https://twitter.com/TeslaJoy/status/1388980047227211777
5/13/2021 – Update on new Air Liquide liquid hydrogen plant in Las Vegas. With one new picture. Says plant is on track to open in November of this year and to start making deliveries in early 2022. Great quote in opening paragraph about what RMP has been writing about for years… hydrogen for mobility is a new market and hydrogen has never ever been made specifically for this new market. This plays into the fact that the saying you always hear about “over 90% of h2 is made from fossil fuels” is misleading at best and dishonest at worst. You can find the Las Vegas hydrogen liquefaction plant on RMP’s map.
5/17/2021 – h2-View article about the “HyDeal LA” which is a initiative to bring $1.50/kg hydrogen to the LA basin by 2030.
5/19/21 – California’s North County Transit District (NCTD) receives a $4M grant to build a hydrogen fueling station at the district’s Breeze Bus maintenance facility in the Oceanside Industrial Park. Construction of the station is expected to be finished in mid 2022. The district expects to purchase eight FCEBs & six BEBs in the next two years. This station will be added to RMP’s map as soon as the exact location is known.
6/14/21 – New Flyer announces order received from AC Transit in San Fran for 20 fuel cell buses.
6/15/21 – Local Detroit company General Motors announces it will work with Wabtec by designing battery & hydrogen fuel cell propulsion systems for locomotive rail applications.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/15/gm-partnering-with-wabtec-on-electric-freight-locomotives.html
6/17/2021 – Liebherr & GM to devlop HYDROTEC fuel-cell based electrical power generation system for aerospace applications.
6/23/21 – Nikola says it will invest $50M in hydrogen production processing plant in Wabash Indiana using pet coke & biomass with CCS. The project is being developed by Wabash Valley Resources (WVR) in Indiana. This location will be added to RMP’s map when the exact location is known.
https://www.h2-view.com/story/nikola-invests-50m-to-support-hydrogen-economy-in-the-us-midwest/
New H2 Stations Opened To The Public 2021 Q2:
The Studio City station opened on 4/26/2021 with an 800kg capacity. The Campbell Station on E. Hamilton opened on 5/24/2021 with a 1,600kg capacity. The Concord station opened on 5/28/2021 with a 1,600kg capacity. And finally, the Aliso Viejo station opened on 6/22/2021 with a 1,600kg capacity. All these stations are “Gen2” stations with massive capacities compared to the original “Gen1” stations that mostly have capacities of 180kg to 350kg. All these stations that opened are also operated by the First Element brand. The Aliso Viejo station was privately funded.
Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles Registered in North America 2021 Q1:
RMP uses data from IHS Markit Worldview to report FCEV registrations in the USA. IHS Markit is the industry standard source in the Detroit automotive industry for statistical registration data used in financial analysis & parts forecasting. IHS Markit data updates are published quarterly & lag approx two months behind calendar date for processing into the database. Therefore, in this quarter’s report, you’re looking at last quarter’s data (3/31/2020) which is the most recent and was published about one month behind (5/15/2021) this article’s publication date. Below are two tables compiled by RMP showing the latest FCEV registration data in the USA by state and in California by county according to IHS Markit.
Note that there are a lot of articles saying there are 10,000 FCEVs on the roads but that is inaccurate. Perhaps there is data on 10,000 FCEVs sold but not all of those vehicles sold are still registered and on the road. The numbers below are accurate for the number of vehicles registered or VIO (vehicles in operation).
Final Thoughts:
Toyota’s alpha fuel cell trucks a few years ago were a big deal just to show the proof of concept for big rigs running real world loads with zero emissions hydrogen fuel cells. Those alpha trucks were built right here in Ann Arbor Michigan. These five new Toyota/Kenworth beta hydrogen fuel cell class 8 trucks are even more special. These beta trucks were built in Washington and demonstrate purpose built trucks showing they’re close to ready for commercial mass production. These trucks will haul real loads in the real world under the same excruciating conditions diesel trucks deal with every day all around the world. These trucks are ready to go to work everyday and prove that heavy freight doesn’t have to come with thick black diesel smoke emissions. This will be by far my favorite story line to follow over the next few years now that these big rigs are on the road. The diesel market is a big market & does some big pollution. Hydrogen fuel cells will forever change the diesel market and this quarter was a significant milestone in that change. The decades long transition from diesel to zero emissions hydrogen fuel cells begins with this single step.
Something else we have our eye on for the near future is the Hartford Connecticut Air Liquide hydrogen refueling station’s “grand opening”. RMP has had this Air Liquide station on our map for almost a year and Google satellite imagery confirms this station and a handful of other Air Liquide stations in New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island have been built with cars refueling for several months. If Air Liquide is finally talking about official grand openings of these stations after a year of testing, it must mean we are close to Toyota dealers selling fuel cell vehicles into America’s East Coast. Stay tuned. Thanks for reading and see you next quarter.
Thanks for the research and sharing! Much appreciated.
Thank you Tadashi-san.