Stan Osserman has a number in mind when he thinks about the price of Hydrogen; $2 per gallon. Osserman, the chief information officer for H2 Energy – a Big Island hydrogen energy start up, is convinced that hydrogen cars will one day in the not distant future become as common place as gasoline and battery powered cars on the island.

Hydrogen cars have a number of advantages over other electric vehicles; they charge quickly, the fuel they use comes from a renewable source, there are no batteries to dispose of and the waste product is water. But perhaps most important is that the power needed to power Hydrogen car does not involve the Big Island grid having to double its capacity.

“Hydrogen energy has huge advantages in transportation because its lightweight and has high energy density,” said Osserman in an interview with Hawaii Business News adding “Hydrogen is also a desirable long  term energy storage for electric grid applications.. We predict that hydrogen will play a huge role in making Hawaii c20 2045lean and energy self sufficient by 2045.”

Critics of hydrogen as a future fuel say it is too expensive, that Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) require three times as much energy to run than as battery powered electric vehicles. The other problem is that the making of hydrogen requires the use of methane and blue LNG to make hydrogen through electrolysis. These are all dirty fuels. The only way to get 100% clean green hydrogen is to produce it from renewable sources and that is probably too expensive.

But Osserman believes that is a misunderstanding. He explains:   “Here's what most folks miss; hydrogen made from methane is cheap because it's a byproduct of oil and LNG processing. They have to "flair methane" so they don't release it as a GHG.  As fossil fuel production drops that "byproduct" it get's more expensive. At the same time, Solar and wind are ramping up, but they are forced to shut down grid input when the grid is over powered, it's called  "curtailed" when the grid doesn't need the power. So as oil and gas slow, "Blue hydrogen" gets more expensive and as Solar and wind are more prevalent on the grid, power to make "green hydrogen" drops to almost nothing (because it's better to use the wasted electricity to make hydrogen, even at 2 cents per kWh than to shut down turbines or dump solar).

“We are currently negotiating with independent power producers that will sell us power at a firm fixed price of less than 10 cents per kWh, and some may give it to us FREE.  At 10 cents kWh hydrogen costs about $7 per kg and that is equal to about $3.50 a gallon of gas. The biggest benefit is that if you can stabilize the cost of the power you can keep costs of hydrogen low and stable over the years.

The other benefit in Hawaii is that if Hawaii was able to harness the geo-thermal heat from the volcanoes it would be possible to make 100% green hydrogen for next to nothing. This would be a significant game changer.

As for the hydrogen car itself a used 2017 Mirai, Osserman says he is happy with it.

“I have several hours driving hydrogen vehicles (Mirai, Clarity, Tuscon, 4 Runner, Mercedes  etc).  All electric cars accelerate well, but with the lighter weight, hydrogen fuel cell electric cars are quicker off the line and accelerate faster (for equal power). Handling is better in my opinion because the weight is ..less which reduces the lateral "G" forces in cornering (compared to battery vehicles).”