02-22-2018, 10:02 PM
(02-22-2018, 09:41 PM)Canard Wrote: The way I think about the hydrogen fuel cell thing is this.
If an alien were to land on our planet, and look at the two options that were on the table, they'd probably say something like:
"Wait, you're thinking about putting wires on towers up for hundreds of kilometres??"
I'm not saying either is right, I'm just saying we should just keep an open mind.
It's kind of exciting to think we could be the first country in the world with a massive network of fuel cell powered trains.
(I'm all for electrification via conventional means, but I'm also all for trying out new technologies. As long as it's not stupid.)
“Open mind” means that the hydrogen power storage research project should go ahead. It absolutely does not mean that we should consider it for a project which we are planning now. It’s simply not at the point where it is eligible to be considered for a project being planned now. Anybody who is promoting hydrogen storage for a current project is either trying to sell something, is excessively enthusiastic, or is trying to kill the project by causing distraction and delay.
I can’t help but point out that it’s weird to complain about stringing wires up on towers for hundreds of kilometres when the proposal is to grade a 10m right-of-way to a low curvature, low grade state, lay down thousands of concrete ties, one every 50cm or so, and clip large heavy steel rails to them for the same distance. By comparison to all that, stringing the wires is pretty easy. Note that in many places, wires are strung for longer distances without any railway to go with them, for the purpose of power transmission.
Of course, if aliens have figured out how to make hydrogen energy storage work well, they might indeed wonder why we’re still using OCS.