Author: Michael Barnard

Europe’s 700-Bar Hydrogen Network Is Closing And Reappearing

Europe’s public hydrogen refuelling network is not growing, but shrinking slightly. It is, however, changing shape. The part built for passenger cars is shrinking, while a new generation of dual-pressure stations is carrying 700-bar capability forward into the bus and truck layer. Germany closed 36 first-generation hydrogen refuelling stations during … [continued]

Ember’s Electric Coaches Show Intercity Bus Electrification Is Already Here

Edinburgh makes electric transit visible. The city has electrified regional rail, trams and a growing number of electric buses, including large battery-electric double-deckers that stand out from the pavement. That progress is important, but it is not especially surprising. Urban buses were always expected to be among the first heavy … [continued]

Lower Saxony’s Hydrogen Trains Are Now A Battery Exit Strategy Problem

Lower Saxony’s hydrogen trains will probably not be retired because a politician announces that battery-electric multiple units were the better technology. They will be retired when the bill arrives for extending the life of an underused, specialized hydrogen system and the state has to compare that cost with buying the … [continued]

Germany Is Rebuilding Its Failed Russian Gas Strategy With Hydrogen

Germany’s hydrogen strategy keeps producing numbers that sound like market evidence until the subsidy structure is examined. Its latest hydrogen freight program attracted 526 applications seeking €455 million from a €220 million fund, including 71 applications for refueling stations and 455 for vehicles or fleets. That sounds like pent-up commercial … [continued]

Aviation’s $4 Trillion Footprint Does Not Prove Every Flight Adds Growth

Aviation performs useful economic work. It connects remote communities, moves urgent and high-value cargo, brings visitors to places that rely on tourism and enables some work that still requires people to be physically present with equipment, sites, customers or negotiating partners. Those are strong arguments for aviation as a service. … [continued]

The 2100 Projections Came First. Then Clients Asked For 2050 Roadmaps.

Most decarbonization scenarios stop at 2050 because policy targets do. Steel mills, aircraft fleets, ports, electricity grids and industrial supply chains do not. A pathway can reach net zero in a target-year spreadsheet while leaving behind an energy system that is expensive, physically implausible or dependent on technologies that never … [continued]

Trump Blames Canada For Smoke From A Climate America Created

Donald Trump says Canada is poisoning American cities with wildfire smoke. He has told Prime Minister Mark Carney to get the fires under control, demanded compensation and threatened tariffs because smoke from Canadian fires crossed into the United States. The smoke did come from trees burning in Canada. That establishes … [continued]

China Keeps Beating Renewable Targets And Missing Nuclear Ones

China’s renewable and nuclear targets are often quoted as equivalent statements about the future. The delivery record says otherwise. Wind and solar targets have repeatedly been overtaken, sometimes years early, while nuclear operating-capacity targets have been missed despite continued approvals, construction and political support. Forecasts should be built from what … [continued]

Germany Is Subsidizing Hydrogen Truck Purchases, Not Battery-Electric Ones

Germany’s latest hydrogen truck programme attracted 526 applications seeking €455 million from a €220 million funding pool. That has been presented as evidence that hydrogen freight is finally finding a market. A more revealing fact sits inside the programme design: Germany is offering purchase support for hydrogen trucks while battery-electric … [continued]

Prague’s Trolleybus Data Show Why Hard Bus Routes Don’t Need Hydrogen

Transit agencies often reach for hydrogen after starting with real operating constraints and skipping a systems-design step. Hills, long duties, heavy passenger loads, constrained depots and the need to keep buses moving are treated as evidence that batteries cannot do the work, so the route is labelled a hydrogen case. … [continued]