There are still a lot of unanswered questions as regards How, but there's plenty of thought being given to the possibilities of tomorrow, and a lot of money being invested in this rising tide of interest in alternative technologies.
At the beginning of the week Cummins hosted a virtual live-streamed Hydrogen Day event. Having recently purchased Hydrogenics, a fuel cell developer, Cummins wanted to show the world that there is real power in hydrogen fuel cell powertrains. A Fox Business story by Gary Gastelu featured highlights from Monday's event.
The article, titled Cummins Is Starting to Ditch Diesel for Hydrogen, states that Cummins has a high degree of confidence that if they build it, people will come.
CEO Tom Linebarger told Fox Business that he's personally been thinking about hydrogen power since 1999 when he first began working on fuel cell technologies.
One of the big hurdles is creating the infrastructure to become "electric." It will be possible, Cummins executives indicated, for OverThe-Road fleets to be all electric one day, but only if the power grid gets upgraded. To do so we need a 50% increase above today's levels in electricity output. In other words, government will have to invest in producing more power to power an electric-powered future on our highways.
During one of the presentations it was noted that people driving Teslas today are powered by electricity that comes from coal. Most people do not think about that.
Cummins' goal is carbon neutrality by 2050, which seems a long ways off. Then again, I suspect that for those of us here to see it, it might come faster than we think.
Another hurdle will be the production of lighter weight batteries. If you are hauling heavy loads, you don't want to also be loaded down with a ton of batteries.
I remember about 5 years ago at SEMA when I saw a new battery concept which was one-fifth the weight and half the size of our current car batteries. People smarter than you or I have been working on these problems for a long time. This is what keeps them awake at night, and it's a good thing.
You can read the full story here:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/cummins-to-start-ditiching-diesel-for-hydrogen
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