China's 'hydrogen economy'1

Now, in the west, with its vast & other; Solar power plants in the sunshine & throughout; Phenomenon has become the norm, more and more areas are on the photovoltaic power generation investment area.

bloomberg article on March 23, the State Council held a press conference, announced and interpreted the 83 revision of the annual government work report. Some stock investors noted that one of the revised proposal to promote related to hydrogen fuel cell car filling stations and other infrastructure projects. On Monday, On March 18) , in the first few minutes of the trading, fuel cell type of stock market value rose more than $4 billion, including a few harden.

the government used subsidies and other policies, less than 10 years to create the world's largest electric car market. The market at present is not without its problems and limitations, so the government to seek no carbon transport diversified development. Fuel cell technology this door so favored by the Chinese.

with battery, fuel cell can generate electricity to drive the car. But the similarity in general that's all. Battery is big and heavy, and must be charged, the electricity from renewable resources, or may not be. Hydrogen fuel cell, in contrast, rely on react with oxygen to produce electricity. They don't have to charge, just onboard hydrogen storage, lighter weight and is better than a battery can store much more energy ( Range and therefore longer) 。 And battery cars often take hours to charge compared to use hydrogen fuel cell car can complete the fuel filling in a few minutes, closer to the traditional internal combustion engine vehicles.

of course, if so easy, hydrogen fuel rolling pure electric vehicles (car early And the internal combustion engine vehicles) . There are several key bottleneck restriction of hydrogen fuel cars development. First, the fuel cell is the most expensive car parts, over the years, the technology and lack of competitiveness than pure electric vehicles. Second, might seem is clean energy, fuel cells and hydrogen from fossil fuels, including coal, often. If the target is carbon reduction, that it's a problem. In addition, the hydrogen fuel infrastructure & ndash; — From the pipe to the filling station & ndash; — The high cost and rare. In China, the construction cost of a filling station is about 1. 5 million dollars. Such investment is difficult, especially in China now running of fuel cell vehicles less than 5000 units.

China can copy on hydrogen fuel cell car electric car achievement? Development road of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles not easy, but the Chinese have several advantages compared with competitors. First of all, China's policy stability. Second, China led the world in renewable energy industry to produce the large amount of waste energy can be used for other purposes: can store and transport hydrogen production. Finally, China's deep pockets, willing to in the absence of direct market infrastructure investment, the construction of filling stations and supporting facilities, is a good one million head. From the success of China used to make the electric car industry experience, in the next phase of the carbon-free transportation, if not the leader in China, is also a good competitor. ( The author Adam & middot; Ming, chun-an Chen)