The BC Hydrogen Highway was a planned
hydrogen highway A hydrogen highway is a chain of hydrogen-equipped public filling stations, along a road or highway, that allows hydrogen powered cars to travel. It is an element of the hydrogen infrastructure that is generally assumed to be a pre-requisite for m ...
that was supposed to link
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
and
Whistler with seven
hydrogen fueling stations. On March 13, 2007, Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
announced funding of almost $200 million Canadian for environmental projects in B.C. including the hydrogen highway. Five stations were built, one each in Whistler, at the
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...
, in
Burnaby
Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard I ...
, and two that were later moved to
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
. But aside from Whistler they are little-used. Reportedly, only three leased Ford fuel cell cars remain in Surrey. There was a fleet of 20
New Flyer Industries
New Flyer is a Canadian multinational bus manufacturer, specializing in the production of transit buses. New Flyer is owned by the NFI Group, a holding company for several bus manufacturers. New Flyer has several manufacturing facilities in Cana ...
H40LFR conventional buses. However, these buses were pulled out of service in 2014-2015, and were rumoured to be converted to diesel-electric hybrids. However, this has not happened, and as of 2022, the deposition of these buses are unknown. There are no official plans to build any more fuelling stations (although there are four hydrogen stations in Metro Vancouver and one in Victoria as of 2021) as the Hydrogen Highway project closed in 2011.
[Jones, Nicola]
"Whatever happened to the hydrogen highway?"
Pique Publishing, February 9, 2012, accessed November 20, 2013
See also
*
HCNG
HCNG or H2CNG (hydrogen compressed natural gas) is a mixture of compressed natural gas and 4–9 percent hydrogen by energy. It may be used as a fuel gas for internal combustion engines and home appliances.
(regarding the acronyms in the above emi ...
*
Hydrogen infrastructure
A hydrogen infrastructure is the infrastructure of hydrogen pipeline transport, points of hydrogen production and hydrogen stations (sometimes clustered as a hydrogen highway) for distribution as well as the sale of hydrogen fuel, and thus a crucia ...
*
Hydrogen economy
The hydrogen economy is using hydrogen to decarbonize economic sectors which are hard to electrify, essentially, the "hard-to-abate" sectors such as cement, steel, long-haul transport etc. In order to phase out fossil fuels and limit climate ch ...
References
Hydrogen infrastructure
Transport in British Columbia
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