What If Highways Were Electric? Germany Is Testing the Idea
This seems like the worst solution (besides doing nothing and boiling the planet). It seems like the best solution is transition heavy transport (trucks and rail) to hydrogen HEVs and personal vehicles to battery BEVs. BEVs work for regular people because every home has “refueling” infrastructure build into the wall, so even with zero public infrastructure like super chargers, most people can do most normal tasks with a BEV.<p>Trucks and rail need to go long distances and&#x2F;or need quick refueling to get back on the job, making batteries too heavy and slow. Hydrogen fits the bill perfectly, and since commercial transport is already operating out of central hubs, whether it be train stations, shipping warehouses, factories, etc., so building hydrogen fueling stations is orders of magnitude more feasible than trying to come close to matching the convenience and ubiquity of the gas station or the overnight home charger for personal vehicles.  Sure, hydrogen is expensive now, but as we get more and more penetration of solar and wind, we are having larger issues with excess power production with no way to use or store it. Producing hydrogen during times of excess power generation is a perfect solution.<p>The advantage long term is the hydrogen network gets slowly built out, allowing other uses for hydrogen fuel to become viable, including grid storage.