IEEE Electrification Magazine - March 2018 - 5

Global commitment to
Green house Gas reduction
and cleaner air
the main goals driving the development of hydrogen FceVs have always
been energy diversification and cleaner air. this has not changed in the last
decade, but the global dedication to

FC System Cost (US$/kW)

120
100
80
60
40
20
0
2006

2008

2010

2012

2014

2016

Year
Figure 1. The modeled cost of a PEM FC system based on the projection to high-volume manufacturing (500,000 units per year). (Data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.)

400
250
300

Monthly Sales
10% Growth

250
200
150
100
50

December
2017

September
2017

June
2017

March
2017

November
2016

August
2016

0
May
2016

it is not just about light-duty vehicles
anymore. it never really was; buses
have been a big part of early Fc
deployments, and hundreds of Fc
buses have been deployed globally
and have been shown to be efficient
and durable (nReL 2017). however,
much of the early development and
demonstration of Fc propulsion systems has focused on demonstrating
that Fcs could be packaged into
small vehicles. now, attention is
turning toward heavy-duty vehicles.
these vehicles are an important
part of our economy. they move more
than 2 trillion ton-miles of freight in any
given year, and an increase to more
than 3 trillion ton-miles by 2050 is predicted. they also emit approximately
22% of the carbon dioxide emissions in
the United states and are responsible for a disproportionate fraction of

vehicles in ports. at least two companies, toyota and nikola, have demonstrated prototypes with the intention
of developing commercial vehicles.

140

January
2016

Electrification of
heavy-Duty Vehicles

tailpipe emissions. the electrification of
heavy truck miles will reduce emissions
just as it does in the light-duty sector.
however, the challenges of electrifying
heavy-duty miles are much greater
than for light-duty vehicles. this is
where hydrogen Fc power trains really shine. these trains allow much
more energy to be stored in a smaller
volume than battery electric power
trains allow. several prototype-class
eight-Fc vehicles have been developed and deployed, mostly as drayage

FC Vehicle Sales

the last decade, the availability of
low-cost solar cells has driven the
cost of utility-scale solar power down
to Us$0.044-0.066/kWh, and the cost
of installed wind power has dropped
to Us$0.02-0.04/kWh (Pivovar 2017).
Figure 3 illustrates the steep decline
in these prices. consequently, renewable electricity represents the
largest fraction of new installed electrical power in the United states.
although renewable electricity is still
a small fraction of the total installed
generation power, the rate of new
installation is impressive.
this dramatic reduction in the cost
of green electricity has two significant
effects on the hydrogen economy. First,
it makes producing renewable hydrogen much more affordable. second, as
more renewable electricity is installed,
strategies will be required to deal with
the intermittency of this generation.
Producing clean hydrogen is one way
to store renewable wind or solar electrical energy that would have to otherwise be curtailed. this trend should
lead to more affordable, low-carbon
sources of hydrogen.

Month and Year
Figure 2. The monthly U.S. FCEV sales from April 2016 to October 2017. (Data from the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory.)

IEEE Electrific ation Magazine / ma r c h 201 8

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Electrification Magazine - March 2018