Running out of Hydrogen?

Examples
In Hong Kong, a plan to develop a hydrogen production facility and hydrogen-powered vehicles has been scrapped. The scheme has been abandoned due to a lack of a renewable energy source to power the energy conversion process.

The Greens in the European Parliament seriously criticized the new hydrogen initiatives from the European Union. "It is regrettable that the European Commission is still wasting time flogging the dead horse of hydrogen cars when even the car industry itself has abandoned the dream that the technology will be viable in the near future," Luxembourg MEP Claude Turmes said.

The city of Perth, Australia, has announced that it will be pulling the plug on its three-year trial of fuel cell driven electric buses. This project is not the first in a range of similar projects to stop without further follow-up. Reasons cited are generally the high costs involved.

And finally, the stock markets seem to lose interest in formerly beloved fuel cell companies such as Ballard and Hydrogenics, which in the last two years lost considerable value, while the market as a whole went up.

New trend?
So what does this all mean? Are these cases just hick-ups in the continuous rise of the hydrogen economy or do they indicate a new trend? Is finding a new fuelling station all we need to do or are we collectively running out of hydrogen? Only the future will tell.

Read more about the Hong Kong plan, the end of the Perth trial and the criticism of the European Green party.