"Tom Barry" wrote in message
...
Barry Salter wrote:
wrote:
Weren't there supposed to be some diesel electric hybrids running on
londons
streets by now? Have they arrived yet - I've not seen them - or has the
idea
been quietly binned?
As others have mentioned, they're in service, although not in large
numbers - I've been on a 141 myself and regularly see them on the E8 and
371 although I've not tried those yet.
Also on the TfL site[2], it's reported that the RV1 (Covent Garden -
Tower Gateway) is to get five Hydrogen fuel cell buses in 2010.
The very useful project/finance update documents TfL publish on their site
say that the H2 bus project has been subject to cost escalations because
the H2 is all imported and the drive trains have had trouble - they were
going to have 5 fuel cell and 5 internal combustion H2 engines, but the
latter aren't now happening so the total will be 8 fuel cell plus two
diesel backups. IIRC the H2 is made from natural gas anyway, which
implies the carbon is being stuck somewhere.
[these are the same documents that imply the New Bus For London is a £50m+
project, as it's in the list of projects to be approved at the highest
level, despite only costing £3.3m for the initial stages]
Tom
AIUI, the long term plan is for Hydrogen to be a form of energy storage for
surplus "renewable" power generated - it's claimed that using surplus (ie
when the winds blow, the sun shines and the big waves roll all at the same
time) to produce hydrogen is the cheapest storage medium - more
cost-effective than batteries or pumped storage hydro-electric schemes. The
claims are made by academics working in the "sustainability" area. Thus, the
use of methane (ie natural gas) to make hydrogen out of its reaction with
superheated steam with CO2 as a byproduct can only be a temporary source
during the extended proof-of-concept of this fuel cell business. Meanwhile,
the good old simple gas turbine is a proven technology and could work on a
range of gaseous and liquid fuels, so why the emphasis on fuel cells leaves
me a little confused.
DW downunder