Jarlaxle
Gold Member
Do you have any idea how big a solar array would have to be in order to create the energy needed to do that? Of course you don't! You just read it somewhere and never questioned a dubious claim.
Yes I do. I've seen a 5,000 square foot aqua business with circulators, pumps, lighting and heating fueled by hydrogen gotten via electrolysis from a solar panel array that measured about 30x15 feet. Hydrogen harvested is stored on site for use as needed to run a generator. The tank looked to be about 2,000 gallons. I imagine for hydrogen service stations you'd need a couple of acres of panels and much larger tanks. Which is not impossible. Most service stations seem to occupy about 1/4-1/2 acre anyway. And where they derive the hydrogen is water, slightly saline if memory serves. In drier climates near the ocean linear solar thermal arrays can distill a less saline water like they're doing in CA already: Next Step for Solar Desalination in California
I guess just let old California take the lead on hydrogen cars and the rest of the nation can catch up.
2000 gallons? Ye gods...a busy gas station can pump that much fuel in a couple hours. A busy truck stop can pump 60-80,000 gallons of fuel in ONE DAY! That is diesel fuel, which has four times the energy per gallon of hydrogen. So, your 2000 gallon tank would fuel TWO semi tractors! (Which would get, approximately, one and a half to two miles per gallon, which begs the question of where to put storage tanks for 800-1000 gallons of explosive gas under high pressure.)