 Welcome to Stan Energyman and Think Tech Kauai and it's pretty crazy weather here. All you climate changers revel in the fact that we've had the squirreliest weather around. We're practically dressing up in parkas over here in Honolulu. And it's been windy and rainy and ugly, just ugly. Anyway, today's show is a little bit different. From time to time I like to do news from around the world in hydrogen and so this week I happened to get my California fuel cells partnership newsletter from Keith Malone and he was on the show a couple of weeks ago and he puts out a great newsletter and I started going through the articles and figuring how I could read the excerpts from just the excerpts from some of the articles and it went on for three times the length of my show. So I ended it way back and I'm going to go through some of the things that are happening in the hydrogen world because but frankly I just don't think most people realize that hydrogen is a real thing it's becoming a real player in our energy technologies today especially for transportation but pretty soon it's going to become a reality on the grid as well and so some of the articles today will talk about it. I'm just going to start heading on into it. The first story is from Nicola Motors. Nicola Motors CEO Trevor Milton who by the way has been on my show twice here announced that Nicola 2 and Nicola Trey will roll out as both hydrogen and plug-in electric. So you'll be able to order both trucks with a 500 kilowatt hour, a 750 kilowatt hour or a 1 megawatt hour option in the battery electric vehicle and the hydrogen 2 the H2 vehicle is 5,000 pounds lighter than the plug-in electric and is cheaper for the long haul applications even when used with even if you include the higher cost of hydrogen fuel. The plug-in electric is for inner cities and non-weight sensitive applications for the most part and Nicola is not phasing out the hydrogen vehicles at all. They plan to see a ratio of 50 to 1 hydrogen vehicles to electric in the future so people understand the dynamics of electric transportation understand that for some applications plug-in electric works great. For example in electric trucks the weight of 80,000, a truck of 80,000 pounds uses about 2.25 kilowatt hours per mile in normal weather conditions, hills and standard routes and standard days. And with the 1 megawatt hour battery that gets you about 400 miles but when you put in the hills and the other stuff and you can only use 90% of the battery and in cold weather on steep hills etc. you can get a little bit less range so probably a good range is about 300 miles. The 1 megawatt takes 69,000 lithium cobalt batteries they call them 21700s weighing 68 grams each which will get you 1 megawatt hour of stored energy at 10,000 pounds. The battery in cases weigh about 10,000 pounds and the truck weighs in at 20,000 pounds. What that does is gives you about 60% of the available truck weight is available for cargo and 40% is just truck and fuel. The fuel cell truck on the other hand has 80 kilograms of hydrogen it's about 7 to 10 miles per kilogram and uses the same 2.5 kilowatt hours per mile as the plug-in electric and when you put that in the formula the fuel cell vehicle and truck weigh about 15 to 17,000 pounds or 3 to 5,000 pounds less than the plug-in electric making the available cargo load in the hydrogen truck 70% instead of 60%. The fuel cell truck can't be beat for the long haul and the plug-in is a really good option for short haul. It's not a question of hydrogen or plug-in electric the world really needs both and that's what Nicola Motors is working on. The carbon-based fuel and the internal combustion engines that are only 25% efficient are the enemy not hydrogen versus plug-in electric. The next story is Hyundai. Hyundai delivered its first Nexio in 2019. It's their second fuel cell production SUV. They delivered it in Northern California and the California at Capital Hyundai which is the dealership in San Jose. Nexio can be leased for $399 for their blue model or $449 for their limited edition model on a 36 month lease where you can purchase it for $58,300 in California. The first year of maintenance is free of charges to the customer and there's eligible tax credits that vary but in the state of California the maximum tax credit you can get based on individual circumstances is about $5,000 so again Nexio is more than just the cleanest longest range zero mission SUV on the road emitting only water. It offers a number of advanced driver assistance systems as well including forward collision avoidance assist, lane following assist, driver attention warning, and high beam assist. It also has remote start smart parking assist which enables Nexio to either autonomously park or retrieve itself from parallel or perpendicular parking spaces without a driver in the vehicle. Additionally Hyundai's blind spot view monitor is an industry first technology that projects that side views of Nexio from a camera while changing lanes or when you're turn signals on and that camera monitors areas that cannot normally cover what a rearview or side view mirrors can cover. The next story up is fuel cell vehicles to pick up the pace mid-decade a study concludes. Now this research report was done by Ward's Intelligence and it says the title of it is fuel cell vehicles on the horizon and it reveals a number of factors driving that growth. Among them are reductions in the cost and size of fuel cell stacks, improvement in fuel cell output and durability, and the expanding fuel cell infrastructure. Fuel cell vehicles represent a tiny niche in the current global automotive market but their mere existence today is a function of as a functional everyday car marks a major forward step in the technology. The major automakers on this are on a path to a wider proliferation in the coming decade the report says. Ward's Intelligence survey of OEMs or our manufacturers and the suppliers projection and projections from data partner LMC Automotive suggests fuel cell demand in light vehicles will pick up momentum by 2025. Initially finding the greatest opportunities in full-size SUVs and trucks commercial vehicles buses heavy-duty trucks and forklifts will also provide significant growth opportunity. Among the report's key findings is the current market leader in fuel cell vehicles which is Toyota will seed its dominance in the coming decade as Honda fuel cell portfolios. Europe will supplant Asia Pacific in the fuel cell vehicle volume by 2030 joining North America and leading the fuel cell deliveries after that. The big picture the numbers still will remain tiny maybe 300,000 or so annual vehicle sales per year after 2030. It's under 1% of the global volume but that number represents a major increase over the small 575 vehicles sold in 2015 in the US. That fuel cell vehicles are on the path to wider proliferation in 2030's and beyond is pretty well set now. A train company called Viva Rail in the UK has trials of a modular hydrogen train. The hydrogen train that does not produce greenhouse gas emissions is set to be tested in the UK by by rail in coming up this year. Keep on going here the train test which currently is in production is due to begin operations on the company's tracks by 29 this year in 2019 according to Alice Gilman from the company. We're expecting that by the end of the year we'll be clocking up miles and gauging its performance said Gilman. Viva Rail spearheads development of green fuel technologies in other ways. Viva Rail's ongoing success in launching the new technologies in the UK market means it's the only train manufacturer where they fully approved base train to work from. The hydrogen train will follow the designs of the Transport for Wales fleet with two driving motors, cars powered by hop key batteries. The only difference being in the hydrogen vehicles that the instead of a diesel gen set beneath the intermediate car hydrogen train will have two hydrogen two car carriages housing the fuel cells in the hydrogen tanks. Unlike other trains by Viva Rail class 230s will store all the equipment beneath the floor making it a much more streamlined and efficient vehicle able to carry more passengers deliver a faster journey time. This means that Viva Rail is not starting from scratch every design is already proven in the field works work therefore the research and development can concentrate on optimizing designs and performance rather than working out basic questions like where the fuel cells are going to be housed. Another story revisioning the role for natural gas in a clean energy future if the process of converting natural gas into hydrogen combined with CO2 capture and storage the bulk of the associated emissions can be avoided. Still worldwide just three plants can do this CO2 capture air products, West and ACTL sturgeon. One of the plants is dedicated storage while the other two use CO2 for enhanced oil recovery and qualities are modest but each is around one metric ton per year. Another story Ron Motor Group Incorporated has announced today that it has signed two venture strategic partnerships in the People's Republic of China to develop zero emissions fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen infrastructure. Ron Motor Group announced today that signing of two strategic partnerships in November of 2018 is leading to a definitive three-way joint venture to co-develop its all electric zero emission hydrogen fuel cell and battery automobiles and trucks including buses. Kevin Hong founder and chairman of Arbor Lake Capital the advisory group for RMG stated that with the driving factors of the NEV national policies and industries the fuel cell commercial vehicles in China are expected to enter the regional maturity stages by 2020 to 2025 and will reach outbreak growth by 25 to 2030. In terms of fuel cell passenger cars it's expected that the market would enter the mass production stage in 2020 to 2025. The next story is hydrogen is essential for sustainability and these are these authors are from USUC Irvine University of California Irvine and the National Fuel Cell Research Center including Dr. Jack Borwell and the summary and conclusions are while we must electrify as many end users as possible and we must power end users with zero emission sources like solar and wind they need to be complemented by battery energy storage and this strategy alone can not achieve the sustainable and zero emissions future that we want and we need. The electrification plus battery strategy using lithium ion batteries as we are using today is limited due to the immutable features of insufficient global reserves of lithium and cobalt to produce enough batteries and storage for all the required challenges that we have with self discharge that precludes seasonal storage challenges with recycling and waste insufficient energy density of heavy duty transport and inability to produce produce chemicals and fertilizers with just batteries has put hydrogen as a unique feature with zero emission fuel energy storage as a medium the industrial and chemical feedstocks that enable the massive and seasonal energy storage that's required for zero emissions and on the electric grid to introduce zero emissions and convert conversion to most sectors of the economy will be hydrogen intelligent energy UAV fuel cell power module was selected by a Korean customer and it set a record breaking 10 hours plus using a little multi copter endurance flight south korean liquid hydrogen specialist specialist meta vista has demonstrated a record breaking 10 hour and 50 minute multi copter test flight using an intelligent energy fuel cell power module the flight was conducted using low bro based fuel cell energy engineering companies lightweight 650 watt fuel cell power module and it's believed to be the longest flight time of its kind meta vista use 390 grams of liquid hydrogen in a specially designed cryo container that's six liters hey here's uh when plug power ceo plans to purchase stock in the fuel cell company Andy March was was also a guest on my show several times and he announced this week that um he plans to buy up to 300 000 of shares in the fuel cells manufacturing stock in the next year on or around march 7th march will adopt a stock trading plan to buy shares of plugs common stock according to a company blog post the announcement is keeping march's premise to the share promise to the shareholders after a business update early in january under the proposed plan a broker will buy up to 300 000 of shares of the company's common stock at market price with the maximum price of ten dollars a share between march 11th of 2019 and march 6th of 2020 the transactions will be reported to the us securities and exchange commission just to make sure everything is above board now asa enters into a contract with uh h2 station which is a company for the heavy duty vehicles in the us and we're going to hit that story right after we come back from our break hey loha my name is andrew landing i'm the host of security matters hawaii airing every wednesday here on think tech hawai live from the studios i'll bring you guests i'll bring you information about the things in security that matter to keeping you safe your co-workers safe your family safe to keep our community safe uh we want to teach you about those things in our industry that you know may be a little outside of your experience so please join me because security matters aloha aloha this is winston welch i am your host of out and about where every other week mondays at three we explore a variety of topics in our city state nation and world and uh events organizations the people that fuel them it's a really interesting show we welcome you to tune in and we welcome your suggestions for shows um you got a lot of them out there and we have an awesome studio here where we can get your ideas out as well so i look forward to you tuning in every other week where we've got some great guests and great topics you're going to learn a lot you're going to come away inspired like i do so i'll see you every other week here at three o'clock on monday afternoon aloha hey welcome back to stand the energy man on my lunch hour as usual stan osman from the hawaii center for advanced transportation technologies kind of walking you through what's going on just in the last couple weeks in the hydrogen world around the world um the story i announced right before the break was one on now hydrogen incorporated which is a subsidiary of now asa um that is one of the oldest hydrogen electrolyzer manufacturers in the on the planet they've been making industrial level um electrolyzers since the 40s they've entered into a contract for delivery of stations made by a company called hd stations solution for fueling heavy duty vehicles in the us mr john andre low lucky chief executive offer of the uh of nell announced that we're happy to secure a significant hd station order for fueling of heavy vehicles in the us as a deployment of hydrogen as a fuel cell we are also gearing up our efforts and technology developments for more towards offering solutions that can accommodate growth in this segment the hd station order has a total value of more than six million us dollars and the hd station equipment will be deployed in the us and will be capable of fueling both heavy duty trucks as well as light duty vehicles the work related to the contract will start soon and exact delivery times are being worked on at this at this moment the customer is requested to remain unnamed and further details will be released at a later point next story up is company plans to bring fuel cell technology to waterways another guest that's been on the show several times dr joseph pratt announced initial that initially golden eight zero emissions marine which is a company he started last year will focus on the passenger vessel segment of the marine industry along with tugboats and small towboats that told the waterways journal this some in a story last week passenger vessels and tug-toe boats are two maritime segments that can achieve a lower total cost of ownership with today's technology and pricing projections said pratt they're also typically operated on regional or local routes which make them amenable to easy and cost effective fueling using hydrogen for those reasons we are focusing on these two sectors initially but the company doesn't plan to stop there studies done by sandy and national lab show that hydrogen fuel cells can power vessels from false small fishing boats up to the largest container ships he said every sector can benefit from characteristics of fuel cells provided compliance with all current and future emissions regulation eligibility for incentives funding lower operating costs potentially higher revenue are all benefits of using these hydrogen technology saudi americo and air products plan to build saudi arabia's first hydrogen fueling station hydrogen fueling station is expected to be operational in the second quarter of 2019 will be located within the grounds of the air products technology center in daharain techno valley science park big story here toyota and panasonic eb fuel cells join dent joint venture as a bid to get ahead of rivals it says we will characterize our management resource or excuse me centralize our management resources and become the top developer and producer of electric vehicle batteries that panasonic manager akashi hitomi hitomi in a january 22 press conference in the western japan city of nagoya meanwhile to her will take the leading role as a new as the new company because the battery's cost and performance has a direct influence on the competitiveness of electric hybrid vehicles it plans to do so from 2020 in china and other places toyota aims to sell 5.5 million electric cars in the year 2030 a figure that will account for about half of its yearly sales of the projected figure one million will be a combination of eb's and fuel cell vehicles that run on electricity generated by the chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen in september of 2017 toyota established a company with mazda motor company and other firms to develop basic technology for eb's which has since been joined by companies like subaru and susuki motor corporation toyota intends to supply batteries manufactured with this new company to many such firm maz production may help drive down the cost of batteries produced in the joint venture um that they're so currently being supplied to honda motor company which receives its batteries now from a panasonic and european automaker moreover toyota aims that you produce next generation batteries like solid state batteries with drastically improved performance compared to lithium ion powered cells today toyota project manager hero hero hero aki kota said he wants to energize activities to make the next generation batteries by consolidating toyota and panasonic's human resources at the new company air lequid plans to make a strategic investment in production of carbon free hydrogen by electrolysis this is a pretty exciting story for me air lequid announces that that it acquired 18.6 state in the capital of canadian company hydrogenics corporation a leader in electrolysis hydrogen production equipment and fuel cells in fact we get uh most of our fuel cells in the vehicles from hydrogenics this strategic transaction which it represents an investment of 20 million dollars um and 18 million euros enables the group to reaffirm its long-term commitment to hydrogen energy markets and its ambition to be a major player in the supplier of carbon free hydrogen particularly for industries uh and mobility markets convinced that hydrogen will play a key role in the energy transition air lequid has been a pioneer in the development of hydrogen sector for several years air lequid and hydrogenics have also entered into a technology and commercial agreement to jointly develop proton exchange membrane electrolyzer technology for the rapidly growing hydrogen energy markets around the world comment commenting on this investment from swad start arsias senior president and member of the air lequid group executive committee um supervising innovation said in this area air lequid has the most ambitious objectives in the industry and here's three reasons why the international cooperation is key to unlocking the hydrogen economy as co-authored by a great group that started in 2017 the hydrogen council they released this joint communique it says technology is maturing and it's time to scale but the key to clean hydrogen economy is greater international and multilateral cooperation policy makers and industry leaders must work together if we're to mitigate the effects stop global warming governments have the power to set the rules and create the policy environment in which industry is empowered to accelerate hydrogen deployment and at the same time industry players such as energy suppliers utility companies and transport manufacturers must continue their commitment to develop and supply the technologies that will lead the world towards cleaner future each has its own role to play but public private collaboration is the only way to turn the hydrogen economy from an idea into a real catalyst for the energy transition along the same notes with the hydrogen council they welcome a new motor group executive vice chairman you you each son chung as this new co-chair hydrogen council released that that news this past week and mr chung will join will join incumbent chair benoit poche chairman and ceo of air laquid to lead the hydrogen council through 2019 there's a story that says how orcney leads the way in sustainable energy this is referring to the island of orcney in the uk orcney spoke some in mr watz that orcney used to used to import all of its power but it now generates on the average more than 120 percent of the electricity more than 120 percent of what it needs to run its own power so you have all of this energy the question is what are you going to do with it so mr watz outlines that the three options open to islanders to build new cables and export this stored energy to the mainland use more electricity on the island itself maybe grow expand some of their industry or turn the excess power into another fuel such as hydrogen and then store it finding the right course is likely to have a profound impact on britain as the nation looks to to exam be the example to set uh looks to the example set by orcney and embraces its low carbon future however they have been doing it on a shoestring just much like hawaii i guess and the message needs to be made very clear if the uk wants to create a wave of tidal industry to make up for the wind industry that's lost 30 years ago it needs to put its money where its mouth is and invest more heavily in the wind turbines and hydrogen the Leonardo da caprio foundation did a study and they say that 100 percent renewables will save trillions of dollars says that hydrocarbons can be eliminated from energy sector at a quarter of the current cost of fossil fuels without using nuclear or our css as a new report investments in offshore wind tv concentrating solar and green hydrogen must be scaled up rapidly alongside the electrification of transportation and heat while natural gas works must eventually be converted to run on green hydrogen in order to keep global warming well below two degrees centigrade which is the goal set by the paris accords according to um authors of the report the report's entitled achieving the paris climate agreement goals the report envisages envisages that by 2050 64 to 65 percent of all the power will come from variable renewables with 27 to 29 percent from dispatchable renewables namely concentrated solar uh bioenergy hydropower and geothermal the remaining power will come from hydrogen investment in power generation until 2050 will total about 50 trillion dollars 30 trillion dollars more than the than the reference scenario which includes meeting the increased demand for electricity or transport heat production of hydrogen and other synthetic fuels the study also envisages that 90 percent of the road vehicles will be powered by electricity or hydrogen by 2050 with about 60 percent of the buses heavy goods vehicles will be powered by batteries and a further 20 percent using fuel cells powered by hydrogen or other synthetic fuels i personally think it's going to be the other way around the remaining will use synthetic biofuels or synthetic fuels which were also needed for shipping in the aviation industry well believe it or not there's there's probably about 30 more stories on this newsletter and we're going to cut it off there because we hit the end of our time i'd like to thank keith malone again for putting out a great newsletter and i encourage all of you look up the california fuel cells partnership online and take a look at their newsletter and if you want to dig deeper into any of these stories or look at the 20 or so more that are out there um you'll get a real good picture of how far hydrogen's come this year and how fast it's going to enter your life over the next decade i encourage you to do so because i think awareness in hydrogen technology is uh is an area where we all need to work on uh getting people to understand more about this technology and what it can do to clean up our world so that's it for stand the energy man this week and we'll see you next week friday from the great beautiful downtown offices of think tech thanks to cindy and robert for doing all the magic in the control room and we'll see you next week aloha