$102M granted to CA, OR, and WA for a zero-emissions trucking corridor

[MP3Mike]

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/cfi/grant_recipients/round_1b/cfi-awardees-project-description-table_round_1b.pdf

The California Department of Transportation will receive $102 million for the West Coast Truck Charging and Fueling Corridor Project to deploy charging and hydrogen fueling stations for zero emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles along 2,500 miles of key freight corridors in California, Oregon, and Washington. The project will enable the emissions-free movement of goods connecting major ports, freight centers, and agricultural regions between the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada.

It will be interesting to see what they install for chargers? (CCS and/or MCS) I'm disappointed that they are wasting money, IMO, on hydrogen stations. They are just so expensive, and while it may zero-emissions in the vehicles, the making/transporting/etc. of it are hardly ever zero-emissions. ("Green" hydrogen is just way too expensive.)

Lots of other charging installations received funding as well, a lot of L2 charging.

 

[israndy]

Headline should be corrected to say "$102 million"

 

[ThomasD]

How many Stations can you build for 102 million?

 

[MP3Mike]

How many Stations can you build for 102 million?

Depends on what you build. Hydrogen is usually $1 million or more per station.

I think Tesla Supercharger stations are like $500k/each. So, you could build ~200 stations. But we shouldn't expect that.

I did some digging and finally found some details here: https://efiling.energy.ca.gov/GetDocument.aspx?tn=250947&DocumentContentId=85889

Sadly, only 34 charging stations and 5 hydrogen stations, and no MCS to start with:

If those costs include purchasing land for the stations, it makes much more sense that they are so expensive. (Since the Tesla figure I put above doesn't include any land costs.)

 

[israndy]

I wonder if trucks could be internally wired so they can be charged from two stations at the same time. 700kW input between two chargers would be almost reasonable charge speeds. Plus you could plug into whichever side of the truck ended up closest to any single charger

If you plugged in the second plug it could reconfigure the battery so each charger gets half the battery but if either charger disconnects it could reconnect the packs to finish with the one charger. Perhaps it could even do that anytime you get over 65% since one 350kW charger could finish topping off the battery. Kinda thought Tesla would do this with the CT, they did split the pack, but only for legacy charging.

 

[MP3Mike]

I wonder if trucks could be internally wired so they can be charged from two stations at the same time.

There are some electric trucks with two CCS inputs. I'm not sure if they split the pack to charge, or they combine them in some way.

On the eCascadia they only accept ~180kW on one port or 270kW when using two: eCascadia® Specs | Freightliner Trucks

I wonder if Tesla will make a CCS adapter available for the Semi so that they can charge at stations like these...

 

[MP3Mike]

From this video they say that it costs $5M per hydrogen filling port, if that holds true then ~$50M, or half, of this $102M will go to the hydrogen build-out. (I knew it was expensive, but I didn't think it was that expensive.)

That leaves ~$250k per EV charger. (Approximately ~200 charges across 34 sites.)

Later in the video they confirm that is about what they plan for:

 

[ThomasD]

Will the State of California purchase only new electric vehicles starting in 2035? Since new ICE vehicles will be banned. Or will they still purchase new ICE Vehicles from out of State? Vehicles like Firetrucks, Ambulances, the large 2 and 3 Ton Trucks and Highway Patrol Police Vehicles?

 

[ThomasD]

Will the Federal Government follow through on the Electric Vehicle mandate if Democrats are in charge in the 2030s to 2040s? Will there be a lot of Heavy Duty Electric Trucks and OTR Electric Semis by 2035? Will Vehicles like this be all Electric?

 

[AS9.9.]

HYDROGEN!?

 

[israndy]

Fortunately they have explained that ICE vehicles are going away and gave them more than a decade to ramp up emission free vehicles. Somone will get it done and be a success, just probably won't be Toyota

 

[ThomasD]

Will need some very large Battery Packs for the Heavy Work.

 

[Nack]

Don’t know if it falls under this but I know there are a few hydrogen hub projects nationally (US). I know one locally to me has some details PNW H2 hub which may be relevant. Its hard to keep track of all the grants and projects going on, but thats better than no projects!

The hydrogen hubs are usually located at a port. Although they can support fuel cell and H2 combustion I think the main focus is on ships and other heavy equipment that is harder to electrify.

 

[AMPd]

What a huge waste of money building the hydrogen stations

But it’s the government so that makes total sense.

 

[ThomasD]

The Government will give Hundreds of Billions of Dollars other Countries but won't fix the issues in this Country.

 

[israndy]

The government will give money to those who give money to the politicians we elect. Thanks to SCOTUS for Citizens United that legalized bribery. We need to remove the influence of money on politics, which will be difficult under our current SCOTUS.

But if you think that the money we use as soft power overseas doesn't benefit the US you are not paying attention.

What a huge waste of money building the hydrogen stations

But it’s the government so that makes total sense.

If they didn't spend money on Hydrogen Stations they'd be accused of picking winners

 

[AMPd]

The government will give money to those who give money to the politicians we elect. Thanks to SCOTUS for Citizens United that legalized bribery. We need to remove the influence of money on politics, which will be difficult under our current SCOTUS.

But if you think that the money we use as soft power overseas doesn't benefit the US you are not paying attention.

If they didn't spend money on Hydrogen Stations they'd be accused of picking winners

Although I understand your sarcasm, that’s exactly what they should be doing. Investing in a more viable technology that’s already proven to work. Tesla has been running their semi across Cali and Nevada for a few years now. Pepsi has been doing it for a while now too. It works and it’s cost effective

Hydrogen production is expensive. The trucks are expensive. The amount of energy that it’s going to require for mass hydrogen production, delivery, storage would have been better off used to charge electric semi trucks.

We’d be better off investing in biodiesel instead of hydrogen.

 

[ThomasD]

Wish Tesla would just say how much the Semi costs

 

[AMPd]

Wish Tesla would just say how much the Semi costs

I’m guessing way more than they originally planned for, otherwise there would be no need for secrecy.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Another giant waste of money. First they should be putting Megawatt Charging System chargers, not 350 kW ones. And hydrogen stations, ugh.