...and destined to always remain so. As much as I love Top Gear I can't agree with their views regarding the Tesla vs. Honda FCS Clarity (S12E07); they've focussed on one single aspect - refuelling - and reverse engineered a conclusion from that. Hydrogen is the fuel of the future in the same way that nuclear fusion is the energy of the future: both hold the promise of clean, cheap energy but seem to be perpetually 10-20 years away.
In hydrogen's case, it's as if the elegance / simplicity of the 'hydrogen is extracted from, and after use, returns to water' argument blinds us to the fundamental stumbling blocks: production – it takes more energy to extract than it subsequently yields (by orders of magnitude); and distribution - it's kinda volatile (even more so than petrol.) Like Fox Moulder, I want to believe but I can't ignore facts just because the 'solution' appears poetically symmetrical.
