Europe’s Hydrogen refuelling network – Another important piece of the puzzle…

Hydrogen Refuelling Station

News that the EU has mandated a hydrogen refuelling station (HRS) every 200km across the region’s road network by 2030, backed up by 424 HRS in major cities and transport nodes, is another big step towards the adoption of hydrogen transport solutions.

While an HRS every 200km (124 miles) will not immediately give the density of petrol/diesel stations, for commercial vehicles, which are expected to be the early adopters of hydrogen powertrains, this should be sufficient to meet initial demand – e.g. most HGV journeys are on major highways.

The EU’s commitment to eventually deliver thousands of HRS, reflects one of the big advantages of hydrogen, which is that the refuelling logistics are no different to petrol or diesel vehicles, unlike battery electric vehicles (BEVs) which require charging stations with high-power electricity grid connections.

This fundamental weakness of BEVs was exposed recently when Gridserve said that its EV chargers are using generators running on vegetable oil as an interim step in areas  where electricity grid connections are inadequate. Meanwhile it has been confirmed that areas of West London are unlikely to add further grid connections until 2027 or later, as grid capacity is currently maxed out.

In terms of the UK’s HRS network, Element 2 is currently building four new HRS, with 30 more to follow, with the target of an HRS every 100 miles along major roads, which will be sufficient for commercial vehicles - especially as many fleet operators will also install HRS in their fleet depots.

The refuelling logistics of hydrogen are one of the key reasons why an increasing number of commentators are beginning to question the previously anticipated dominance of BEVs, with firm evidence in the form of heavy price discounts by Tesla, and major BEV production cuts by VW, that consumer resistance to BEVs is emerging, and the perceived attraction of hydrogen growing.

Not only do hydrogen-powered vehicles refuel like conventional petrol or diesel vehicles, but it is also much easier to install the network to refuel the vehicles - building an HRS is no more challenging than building a petrol station, and there will be plenty of surplus petrol stations around the country to re-purpose.

On the other hand, there are large parts of the county where installing a 1MW recharging station needed for a 44-tonne electric HGV is impossible because regional electricity networks do not run at that power, and even where they can, MW charging stations would increase peak load demand on the network by an unsupportable factor of 10x.

With the major strategic energy commitment to hydrogen made by western governments in response to the energy crisis that has accompanied the war in Ukraine, has also come a growing acknowledgement that hydrogen is the most compelling zero-carbon fuel. It comprises 75% of all matter in the Universe and will continue to do so long after all the oil and lithium reserves on earth have been exhausted, and when used to make electricity, it simply converts back to water, ready to be used again.

To add to these obvious benefits, hydrogen requires no massive infrastructure upgrades, and no major changes in behaviour by the user. It also addresses the negatives of electric vehicles, as it goes as far as a petrol or diesel vehicle and refuels as quickly using a familiar-looking pump. The future is looking increasingly green, and hydrogen is set to become a big part of that future.