Bavaria Enters Act 3 of Tragicomic Odyssey Of The Hydrogen Fleet

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The hydrogen refrain is once more singing, discordantly and joyfully, as Bavaria continues alongside the tragicomic journey which inevitably results in abandoning hydrogen after losing a lot governmental cash and delaying electrification. A tiny, two-car Siemens light-rail passenger practice has accomplished trials this week and someday in 2024 will go into service, for a number of months.

As a reminder, the tragicomedy first options lobbyists convincing governments that hydrogen for transportation is a tremendous thought. Then the governmental do gooders, hearts in the fitting locations however spreadsheets noticeably absent, unlock thousands and thousands in funding. A cash-starved transit or fleet group sees the piles of cash and stops being attentive to anything. One or many hydrogen automobiles begin rolling alongside roads, tracks and even seaways. Then another person within the authorities realizes how a lot all of that is costing and closes the purse strings. The fleet operator tries vainly to maintain the absurdly costly automobiles working, then provides up, After years of delay, they go electrical, both with batteries, grid-ties or a mixture.

It is a course of which is taking part in out everywhere in the world. Pau in France has now deserted its costly, laborious to maintain working hydrogen buses, costing nicely over one million euros per bus with most backed by France. Decrease Saxony, one other German state, introduced after solely a yr of operation of their 14 €7 million trains that they wouldn’t purchase extra even when the federal government gave them scads extra money and pivoted to batteries and grid ties.

In close by Austria, Ikea, as a substitute of shopping for battery electrical supply vehicles with satisfactory vary for his or her wants at €85,000 per bus from BrightDrop, has simply spent nearly €5 million of Austria’s cash on 5 hydrogen supply vehicles, one thing that they’ll abandon inside two years at most I predict. On one other continent, India is continuing to completely electrify all heavy rail, focusing on 2025 for completion, however has purchased a handful of tiny vacationer hydrogen trains for some narrow-gauge scenic heritage routes.

North America isn’t disregarded of this farce. In Quebec a tiny, two-car practice ran a 90 kilometer vacationer route for 3 months this yr to gushing cries from the hydrogen refrain about it being the way forward for rail. And Santa Cruz in California closes out our little world journey, having simply spent about US$1 million per bus of governmental subsidies on 57 buses, and have their hand out for one more $27 million from one other funding group. Apparently Santa Cruz has terrain and climate that doesn’t exist in China, the place there are over 600,000 battery electrical buses and a border than runs by way of Mount Everest.

The affirmation bias of the hydrogen refrain understanding no limits and the hydrogen refrain having precisely zero self consciousness, after all they’re very excited by the Bavarian two-car hydrogen practice. They’re amplifying the information. They’re taking the Siemens press launch and reprinting it. They’re taking the PR puff piece from Arc Advisory, whose purchasers embody a lot of the greatest oil and fuel corporations on the earth, and sharing it. Rail-oriented journals just like the Worldwide Railway Journal, Railway-Information and Rail Expertise, starved for content material, are copy and pasting the press releases with out stopping for crucial thought into their web sites. Clear know-how oriented websites are filled with excited headlines like “Extra Diesel-Killing Hydrogen Gas Cell Electrical Trains Heading For Germany” and “Siemens efficiently exams hydrogen practice in Bavaria”.

Hydrogen Perception will get it proper, which is why it’s the one hydrogen-focused media web site value following: ‘A waste of taxpayer’s cash’ | German passenger group slams hydrogen trains as a distraction from want to impress“.

“A very powerful which means of hydrogen for mobility in Bavaria is the chance for photograph ops for politicians, distraction from the necessities and the waste of tax cash,” mentioned Lukas Iffländer, chairman of Professional Bahn’s Bavarian regional affiliation, commenting on a latest look of the state economics minister Hubert Aiwanger — a robust proponent of H₂ in transport — on the IAA motor present in Munich earlier this month.

The article factors out, as smart reporters are wont to do, that the neighboring state of Baden Württemberg fairly utilized spreadsheet expertise earlier than losing any vital quantities of public cash, discovering that batteries and grid ties had been a 3rd the whole price of possession.

One of many amusing issues about this tiny Bavarian hydrogen practice, distinct from watching the frothing of hydrogen advocates as they struggle desperately to show a miniscule couple of automobiles right into a thundering avalanche of hydrogen momentum, is that the Bavarian contract with Siemens is just for 30 months. That contract began in March of 2022, so it’s already two-thirds over.

The practice goes to enter operation, reminiscent of it’s, solely subsequent yr. The contract runs out in September. The probability of the 2 automobiles rolling for even six months approaches zero. The probability of it being out of service often, unable to get ample volumes of inexperienced hydrogen, working nicely over price range and being deserted totally on the finish of the 30 months approaches 100%.

Do the howling hydrogen refrain that present unhealthy vocals for the tragicomedy present any of this context? After all not. Do they examine the miniscule scale of the hydrogen trials in opposition to the huge electrification of rail globally? After all not. Do they acknowledge that they’re caught in a circle of affirmation bias, howling approval at each other, whereas the remainder of us look on in bafflement? Don’t be foolish.

Does the frothing refrain listen previous Act 3, when some authorities provides huge sums of cash to a transportation group to waste on yet one more futile take a look at of what has already been examined globally? No, they listen solely to what confirms their bias.

As I commonly word, Seeing Local weather Options Clearly By means of Biases & Lacking Knowledge Is Difficult. All of us have cognitive biases, and that features me, but when we wish to truly transfer the local weather needle we have to attempt to beat them. For the hydrogen refrain, your senseless amplification of nonsense is delaying actual local weather motion. Contemplate your biases and attempt to transfer past them. And for journalists pandering to the refrain with clickbait articles to make a few bucks, develop a backbone.