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Originally Posted by jad03060
Legislation passed this year will require CCS stations, at least four units every 50-miles, along the US interstates, but they have 2-3 years to achieve that density.
There have been numerous advances in the catalysts that speed up the production of hydrogen, and it is fairly easy to transport as ammonia (NH3) as a liquid, and catalysts to strip the hydrogen out are becoming more evolved. There are plans to utilize excess solar, wind, hydrothermal, and potentially current power production as hydrogen. Some of those work quite well into the night when the power load tends to be lowest and otherwise, they disable or disconnect from the network - might as well use it for something. There's a prototype solar mirror installation that, with the high temperatures involved, is much more efficient producing hydrogen. IOW, there has been some significant advancements even this year, so old news may not be very representative of today's realities.
Fuel cells tend to be sized smaller than the peak output needed for maximum performance, so there is usually some battery capacity onboard to allow for larger peak current capabilities. FWIW, hydrogen can work well when added to NG pipelines to extend their capacity with less greenhouse gas emissions, so there's ways to use it, if it ever became plentiful. IT is the most plentiful element in the universe, and when used it becomes water, so is recoverable as opposed to burning fossil fuels that at least today, isn't as easy to reformulate back into a fossil fuel.
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All this may be correct, but why not use the clean electric energy production you describe to charge EVs? It’s still a more overall efficient process than producing hydrogen, transporting it, storing it, and then filling a tank in a fuel cell automobile.