Batteries are not the energy source of the future

By introducing Tesla, Elon Musk showed the world that it is possible to change a traditional industry. A number of years later, most car manufacturers today offer electric cars. All of these have followed the trend and invested large amounts of money. I, on the other hand, share the view with many others that batteries are probably not the energy source of the future.

I believe, that in the future, we will have transportation driven by energy from the sun and water. Although it almost sounds too good to be true, more and more people are convinced that hydrogen and fuel cells paves the way to a fossil-free world.

The "hydrogen vehicle" is actually an electric car, where the batteries are replaced with a fuel cell and a gas tank. With the help of air, the energy in the hydrogen gas is converted into electricity that drives the car's engine. The residual product, or the "exhaust gases", is clean water.

The "hydrogen vehicle" is actually an electric car, where the batteries are replaced with a fuel cell and a gas tank. With the help of air, the energy in the hydrogen gas is converted into electricity that drives the car's engine. The residual product, the "exhaust gases", is pure water.

As it seems today, cars with these fuel cells have an efficiency of about 50 percent. This means that they are significantly better at using energy than traditional internal combustion engines, but worse than today's battery-powered electric cars. In electric cars, comparatively more than 80 percent of the energy is used to power the vehicles.

However, the range is better in a car with fuel cells as you can drive nearly 700 kilometers on a single tank of hydrogen. For a battery car to reach as far on a charge, very large and expensive batteries are required.

For those of us who work with freight transport, fuel cells appear as a significantly better solution than electric power as gigantic batteries are needed to run electric trucks. Another large advantage is that a hydrogen tank is filled in a few minutes whereas an electric car takes many hours to charge. The queues and waiting times at the fast loading stations along our roads become longer as the number of users increases.

This is also the reason why more and more vehicle manufacturers, as well as and others in the business sector, are now focusing on hydrogen research and development.

I will tell you more about this in upcoming posts, here on the blog.

Thomas