January 2005

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ALBANY, NY - A hydrogen fueling station network along New York state’s highways, converting school buses in Albany and Buffalo to hydrogen, pool vans running on hydrogen in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut metro regions - these were some of the ideas tossed out and debated at a New York State Hydrogen Vision Workshop held here Dec. 14-15.

Convened by the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency (NYSERDA) and the New York and Long Island Power Authorities, the meeting attracted some 70 business, government and public interest leaders for the two-day session organized jointly by Energetics, Inc., Columbia, MD, Albany Nanotech, Albany, NY and the National Hydrogen Association, Washington, DC.

A “Linear Hydrogen Corridor” with hydrogen fueling stations on Interstate highways in or near New York City, Albany, Buffalo, and along the I-87 route from New York City to Montreal was among the suggestions presented in the final summary. Converting airport and ground fleets, buses and service vehicles to hydrogen at airports in Albany, Buffalo, and Stewart International, near Newburgh, was another.

One somewhat unusual suggestion was to stage races by hydrogen-powered cars on the 2.45 mile Watkins Glen racetrack, in New York’s Finger Lakes district, to attract public attention.

One week after the meeting, just before Christmas, the New York Power Authority and NYSERDA announced more than $1.4 million in state funding for two hydrogen demonstration projects in Albany and Buffalo. In Albany, Plug Power and American Honda Motor Co. will receive $735,000 to build and operate fueling stations for two fuel cell Hondas leased by the state (H&FCL Dec. 04 Briefs) in cooperation with Air Products and Homeland Energy. In Buffalo, American Wind Power & Hydrogen, LLC will receive $709,000 to convert several light duty internal combustion engine vehicles owned by the University of Buffalo and The Niagara Frontier Transit Authority. Praxair Inc., Tonawanda, will provide the hydrogen.

Other speakers at the Albany meeting suggested exploiting the proximity to Wall Street and the international financial community there as one lever to accelerate building hydrogen systems and infrastructures during the next two decades. Similarly, other speakers felt New York’s power as a global media center with vast communications resources could be tapped to advance hydrogen in the state and also elsewhere.

The panelists identified a host of generic strategic goals in the near-, mid- and long-term in both electric power (one near term goal: develop an electrolyzer, to be demonstrated in the mid-term, with continued cost and efficiency improvements to be pursued in the long term) and in transportation. The group envisioned the state to be a leader by 2020 in hydrogen r&d, having attracted new jobs and high tech industries. By that time, hydrogen will be a key part of the state’s energy mix, and a business and regulatory climate will have been created that attracts hydrogen investments.

But, warned the final slide, “If New York wants to be a leader,” the state’s decision makers “need to take it seriously, need to do it quickly, and need to get organized.”

Energetics’ Joseph Badin, the principal moderator of the meeting, said more sessions will be held later to flesh out the details of the vision. Contact: Joseph Badin, Energetics, Columbia, MD Phone: (410) 290-0370; jbadin@energetics.com.