Today, California has 20+ hydrogen stations. Most, however, are behind-the-fence stations built for R&D or private fleet operations. As the automakers prepare to roll-out thousands of fuel cell vehicles to customers by 2015, those private stations are not going to be enough.
In 2008 and 2009, eight new retail-ready stations were funded and have started planning and construction. Six of the new stations are in the Los Angeles and Irvine Orange County areas, two are in the San Francisco Bay Area. With these eight new stations, existing fuel cell vehicle customers will have good access to fuel—not great, but early customers know that inconvenience is the price they pay for being the first to have new technology.
As FCV customers grow from hundreds to thousands, customers will expect more stations and fewer inconveniences. CaFCP members (and others) have been exploring station roll out from many different angles. UC Davis and UC Irvine have done great work around the concept of clustering stations. Through studies and modeling tools, they’ve identified ways to choose station locations based on customer travel time, improving air quality and maximizing industry and government investment.
NREL’s been looking at the business case for hydrogen stations. They’ve created models to predict capital and O&Moperation and maintenance costs for larger-scale hydrogen station, and estimate the price that fuel retailers need to charge to get a return on investment. This objective data helps companies involved in building and operating stations to have pricing targets, and to see where they can reduce costs as the technology matures.
CaFCP, in conjunction with the Department of Energy, conducted an online focus group with some of the nation’s largest fuel retailers. The goal was to understand their motivations and challenges in adding hydrogen to existing stations. Weeks later, The International Partnership for a Hydrogen Economy conducted a workshop that used the focus group results and other information to bring forward actions and ideas that will move hydrogen infrastructure forward even faster. IPHE will soon publish the results of the workshop, and the brainstorming will continue at the NHA Conference in Long Beach in May.
CaFCP’s 2009 action plan identified the need for retail-ready hydrogen stations by 2014 to support thousands of FCV customers that will grow to tens of thousands just a few years later. Industry, government and academia are working together to make sure that happens in a way that minimizes investment and maximizes return.
