The U.S. Department of Energy released its new plan to shift the nation toward a hydrogen based transportation system. The plan, unveiled Wednesday by Bush administration officials, lays out milestones for technology development over the next decade, with the goal of a commercialization decision by industry in 2015.
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the plan includes timelines that provide clear and scientific measures to track and demonstrate progress. "If we achieve our technical objectives, the automotive and energy industries will be in a position to begin to mass market availability of both vehicles and refueling infrastructure by 2020," he said.
Abraham said the plan integrates research, development and demonstration activities from the Energy Department's renewable, nuclear, fossil and science offices.
An integrated hydrogen program will improve the effectiveness and accountability of the department's research activities, he said, and increase the probability of success in achieving technical milestones on the road to a hydrogen economy.
Abraham touted the administration's fiscal year 2005 budget request for $227 million for research to support the hydrogen fuel initiative and its support for FreedomCAR, which provides $90 million annually for research into hybrid components and other advanced vehicle technology. The new plan follows a report issued last month by a National Research Council committee, which questioned the timetable laid out by the administration.
The panel praised the intent of the federal hydrogen plan, but said the "extreme challenges set by senior government and Energy Department leaders" have created a "somewhat unfocused" program with unclear priorities.
The initiative has been promoted by the White House as a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce dependence on foreign oil. A key goal is to make it practical and cost effective for U.S. consumers to use clean, hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicles by 2020.
That is unlikely, the committee said, given the wide array of technical, economic and infrastructure challenges.
Hydrogen has long been peddled as the next great energy revolution. It can be produced by splitting water into its two component atoms – hydrogen and oxygen. When used for power in a fuel cell, the only byproducts are water and heat.
But the National Research Council committee said there is little existing capacity for hydrogen production, which remains expensive, and fuel cell technologies face challenges of storage, cost, reliability and safety.
Environmentalists are skeptical of the Bush plan and view it as more hype than substance. Many believe the key to the environmental friendliness of the hydrogen economy is how the fuel is produced – and this is where critics say the Bush administration has got it all wrong. The focus should be on using renewable, pollution free sources to produce hydrogen, rather than natural gas, coal and nuclear power, environmentalists say, and in the meantime the nation should adopt conservation and efficiency measures to cut pollution now.
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