Shell Is Immediately Closing All Of Its California Hydrogen Stations | The oil giant is one of the big players in hydrogen globally, but even it can't make its operations work here. - eviltoast

Shell Is Immediately Closing All Of Its California Hydrogen Stations | The oil giant is one of the big players in hydrogen globally, but even it can’t make its operations work here.::The oil giant is one of the big players in hydrogen globally, but even it can’t make its operations work here. All seven of its California stations will close immediately.

  • daqqad@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Hydrogen can be generated any time. Like when nuclear or solar or wind energy is otherwise going to waste. We don’t have and likely won’t have batteries that could replace it for decades.

    Modern batteries are absolute shit and definitely not good enough. I think a good indication that batteries are anywhere near useful will be when you can fly on battery power across the Atlantic.

    • laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      9 months ago

      Wait, so … They’re nowhere near useful when we can already use them for daily commuting easily because of some arbitrary goalpost for an unrelated transportation method? How does that even make sense?

      Infrastructure for hydrogen fueling requires production facilities, trucks to transport, and stations set up, to even start moving one vehicle let alone taking over any percentage of commuter traffic of any significance. EV fueling infrastructure requires… Pretty much the same grid we already have, at least as a functional baseline (yes, it needs improvements, but we’re not switching overnight so we have the time we need to make those changes; meanwhile, it’s already functional)

      • daqqad@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It isn’t arbitrary. Just a simplified example of stored energy to weight ratio.

        Infra would show up if people didn’t jump on wrong tech just like electric charging infra is starting to show up.

        • laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          9 months ago

          There’s that subjective “wrong tech” again

          And again, the wholesale infrastructure needed is what I’m talking about, not the infrastructure availability.

          Again: hydrogen requires, at a minimum, production facilities, trucking to distribution nodes, and fueling stations to get the fuel to the consumer.

          Electricity… Is already being delivered. It just needs a way to plug in.

          This has precisely zero to do with which tech has been “jump[ed] on”.

          • daqqad@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            I’m talking about public infra, not charging at home since most people cannot charge at home. Almost the same amount of infra is required since current capacities are nowhere near sufficient. So it has everything to do with people jumping on wrong tech and money being wasted on useless infra.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      9 months ago

      We don’t have and likely won’t have batteries that could replace it for decades.

      Wrong. There are tons of options for grid storage batteries that are gearing up for mass production right now.

    • jaemo@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      Ok chief, you know best. Better sit out buying a vehicle until the dust settles then I guess.

      Meanwhile, I’ll be charging my ‘not good enough’ EV and trying not to let the fact that it doesn’t measure up to your standards weigh to heavily on me.

      • daqqad@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I already have an EV and I still think batteries in them are shit. These are not mutually exclusive.

        • jaemo@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          Hmm is it a leaf perchance? I’m very very happy with the 2020 Ioniq, it’s been solid, reliable, and true to its mileage estimate (I actually get 25km more range at 100% than the advertised specs)

          I’ve heard negative stories about Nissan’s battery tech - which is why I ask. Air cooling is not really helpful to lithium battery cells.

          It’s also possible you just got a bad module, and/or that you just have higher standards and expectations than I do, and these are also not mutually exclusive.

          • daqqad@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            I have an Outlander and I’m also getting more range than advertised specs. My issue with batteries isn’t defects in tech, but the stage of its development. There are simply no batteries that can even come close to energy storage capacity of hydrogen and unlike with gas (12-30%), hydrogen’s conversion efficiency when using fuel cell is ~60%.