Filed under: Hydrogen
BP's only UK hydrogen station demolished
For the past three years, BP has had a hydrogen filling station at Hurnchurch in the UK. It was the only hydrogen filling staion the oil company had in the UK. Now, it is no more. The station was recently demolished and a BP spokesman said: "We always knew this had an end date." The non-hydrogen facilities at the location are still in operation.
BP and the group Transport for London are now explaining that this was never intended to be a long-term station, but more of a test and a place to "increase public awareness."
What did the three year experiment cost? £4.5million. Hope they got a lot of data for that kind of scratch.
[Source: Romford Recorder via EVWorld]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris M 3:32AM (6/12/2007)
Not suprised at the closing, there is just no market for H2 powered cars, and unless subsidized to an absurd degree there never will be. H2 fuel has too many problems, and the biggest problem is that there are now much cheaper more efficient clean alternatives avalable.
The suprise is that they closed it so soon, and made a public announcement of the closing. I had thought they would let it collect dust, then quietly dismantle it and hope no one noticed.
Maybe BP realized that it is hopeless, and even government funded H2 hype won't get H2 fuel to sell.
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ThwartedEfforts 5:30AM (6/12/2007)
It's Hornchurch, not Hurnchurch. The station was always regarded with suspicion by locals as not only did it look peculiar -- it was never made clear what its purpose was and it was always deserted -- but it was also dwarfed by wind turbines. Nobody knew what the deal was. Knowing that it was actually supposed to show off BP's "green credentials" has cleared up an age-old Essex mystery, though I must say that all the company succeeded in doing was making it look like a spaceship had crashed on the outskirts of London...
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Altairian1 8:57AM (6/12/2007)
Beware the Lightning GTS powered by Nanosafe from AltairNano(Alti) will strike soon, courtesy the UK Electric Lightning Car company.
See EVworld 6-11 article.
The Altairnative is clear:Nanosafe
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Hun Boon 8:18PM (6/13/2007)
BP had a similar trial here in Singapore. One of my friends was driving an hydrogen powered Mercedes A-class for a few months.
The trial has met the same fate. It ended quietly with no plans to expand the scope. It's a pity but we could all see this coming. Hydrogen just isn't a viable option at the moment, nor for the next 10-15 years.
Hun Boon
http://starbamboo.wordpress.com/
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