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Get to know a greenvention each week that may change the way you think about greening your life and your world.
Using public transportation is already a pretty eco-friendly practice. But imagine if each of the vehicles in every fleet of public buses created no emissions, burned no fossil fuels, and generated scant little waste. What you're imagining is a hydrogen powered bus. And their implementation into public transit systems around the world is serving to up the green ante in very big ways. Now, the hydrogen powered bus isn't a brand new invention, like most of the innovations you'll see here on Greenvention. But it could be a cornerstone of green transportation in the very near future—it's one green vehicle you should get to know.
Hydrogen Fuel Cells Treat the Environment Well
With hydrogen tanks, a fuel cell, a battery, and a motor, hydrogen powered buses can do the job of a heavy polluting, standard issue diesel bus—yet it requires no oil at all to run. In fact, hydrogen buses are about as close as we've come to creating zero emission vehicles. And they run as smoothly and silently as urban stealth bombers.
Hydrogen Buses Storm the Globe
The biggest fleet of hydrogen powered buses in the US at the moment is in Oakland—and they've got a whopping three of them. But they're popping up across the globe as well—Iceland and England already have, or are developing, fleets of them. Canada will even have a hydrogen bus convoy ready for the 2010 Olympic Games to shuttle the athletes around Whistler.
Drawbacks to Hydrogen Power
In a word: it's expensive. Each hydrogen powered bus in Oakland's fleet, for example, cost about 2 million bucks—a number that's hardly appealing city boards and state governments already weary of costly eco-improvements.
The good news is that research grants and public interest are paving the way for cheaper vehicles. It might not be long before we see—but don't hear—hydrogen powered buses gliding through our cities.
Get Hydrogen Buses in Your City
Write your mayor or other city representative and let them know you're interested in greener public transportation!
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