Hydrogen Buses to Operate in Solihull

[Lex]

A technology I don't know a lot about, but apparently the only by-product is water: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-60892679

[rebbonk]

I like it more than electricity, but hydrogen is a very nasty gas so needs creating/storing safely. Remember the Hindenburg accident?

[margaret]

I don't like that idea!

[Lex]

Yes, it can go bang spectacularly!

[rebbonk]

I was talking to a couple of guys earlier and apparently, the rules around recovery and storage of of accident damaged electrical vehicles are quite onerous.

The problem is that an uncontrolled discharge of electricity can cause a lot of damage. When I worked on aircraft, I saw the after-effects of a battery fault, it wasn't pretty, (over £1m in repairs in the 70s) and a friend who carried a battery wrongly melted his belt and carried the scars until the day he died.

I also fail to see how we're going to produce and deliver sufficient electricity to power these vehicles. How are flat dwellers and those without their own parking going to charge vehicles?

Bottom line, I think this is yet another barmy idea from our idiot PM's wife.

[AMP]

I agree, I am not strongly convinced that Hydrogen busses will be very safe as there has been a few incidents already. The city council in Brisbane Australia already swapped their hydrogen busses for diesel ones in 2020 due to cylinder explosions.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-03/brisbane-city-council-swaps-exploding-gas-buses-for-diesel/12840670

Other hydrogen bus fires:

London, 12th June 2011.
Stockholm ,Sweden 2019.
Delaware, USA. Mid 2020.
Netherlands , 28th October 2021.