First Commercial Hydrogen Fueling Station to Open in California
April is coming to an end, and with it, the day that FirstElement Fuel opens the world’s first ever commercial hydrogen fueling station approaches ever closer. Set to happen in May 2024, the station marks the beginning of hydrogen refueling infrastructure for the nation.
Details
The location is set to be near the Port of Oakland, allowing for trucks in the vicinity to make short-haul deliveries from the Port to local facilities.
Current refueling time is 10 minutes for a full tank that allows for driving of 450 miles, about the same amount of charging time per distance as diesel fuel. Testing was performed on Hyundai and Nikola hydrogen-powered big rigs, and now FirstElement Fuel feels ready to open services to the greater public. Though there is no date set in stone, they are aiming to have it done before June 1st.
“We should be able to eliminate 50 million pounds of CO2 and replace almost 2 million gallons of diesel being used. This is only from 30 trucks. Now magnify that by 1,000 trucks,” said Eugene Litvinov, Hyundai Motor North America director of commercial vehicle and hydrogen business development.
Conclusion
FirstElement Fuel admits that there is a glaring flaw with hydrogen as it stands now before it can replace diesel as the future of trucking: the price. As it stands, FirstElement Fuel estimates the cost of charging for hydrogen will be double the price of diesel, and that is considering the fact that diesel prices are very high as of Spring 2024. The silver lining for this is that they are certain that through the power of economies of scale and infrastructure development that this price can plummet.
Even diesel had to start with a single station, hard as that may now be to believe. With FirstElement Fuel planning to open at least ten commercial refueling stations in the next seven years, electric truck manufacturers and its infrastructure developers are going to have to work overtime if it wants to become the replacement for diesel when it has some pretty stiff competition. Topmark Funding currently has no present plans for financing on hydrogen-powered trucks, but depending on how the cards play out on the table, that very well may change.
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