Hawaii To Become First Hydrogen Car State?

The land of paradise, known as Hawaii, is a real beauty. Now it might become the first hydrogen car state that is viable for normal people thanks to an odd development. 

Hawaii is, of course, a collection of islands. I state this obvious fact because it lends itself to other obvious facts. The first is the state must important a lot of things, including fuel. The second is the islands are all small enough that you really can’t drive that far in any one direction. The third is a few filling stations can cover the breadth of the islands. As odd as it sounds, when combined these facts lead to the conclusion Hawaii may become the first hydrogen dominant state when it comes to transportation.

There are many problems with hydrogen technology. Chief among them is what is known as the chicken and egg problem. There is a bottleneck in the development of hydrogen transportation on a practical level because there are not enough hydrogen cars on the road to support a string of hydrogen fuel stations. On the other hand, the lack of cars is primarily due to the fact there is nowhere to fill them up and the prices can be high even where there are. 

Hawaii gets around these problems nicely. The breakthrough is on the filling side. The nature of the islands are such that there aren’t a lot of available miles to drive. Wherever you drive, you are soon passing a point you’ve already been at. This provides a unique opportunity. Five or six strategically positioned hydrogen fuel stations could cover the needs of an entire island unlike say a state like California where you would need hundreds or thousands of stations. 

As an added bonus, Hawaii is about to get a fresh supply of hydrogen made direction on its islands. The creatively named “Gas Company” is a Hawaiian entity that converts crude oil into natural gas. There are a number of byproducts produced during this process. As you can probably guess, hydrogen is one. This hydrogen could be used in the filling stations and, given its location of production, may well be cheaper than gas imported from off the islands. 

So, will we see Hawaii become the first state to seriously incorporate hydrogen into its transportation system? It seems like a logical move. Now we just need to see the political will to make it happen.