The Olympic Games is not only a super event to build the image of the country, but also a top luxury stage for individual achievements. The successful holding of an Olympic Games can make the image of many countries deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and will also make some outstanding athletes enter people's vision and become well-known true "stars", and at the same time promote the development of many industries, such as the "hydrogen fuel cell vehicles" that were reused at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
It is understood that the Beijing Winter Olympics run a total of more than 1,000 hydrogen energy vehicles, including hydrogen fuel cell buses, cars, special vehicles from Toyota, Geely, BAIC, Yutong, Foton and other car companies, and equipped with more than 30 hydrogen refueling stations, which is the world's largest hydrogen fuel cell vehicle collective operation activity so far. This makes hydrogen fuel cell vehicles a beautiful landscape at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Why reuse hydrogen fuel cell vehicles
There are many factors that use hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in large quantities at the Winter Olympics, and the objective factors are mainly that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have formed a certain scale in the venues of the Winter Olympics. At present, Zhangjiakou's hydrogen energy vehicles have been running smoothly for more than three years, with a cumulative operating mileage of more than 21 million kilometers and a passenger capacity of more than 65 million passengers.
Secondly, the Beijing Winter Olympics as the first Olympic event to truly achieve "carbon neutrality", the venues are low-carbon, power generation is green, the transportation system must naturally be low-carbon, hydrogen fuel cells as a new energy vehicle should be selected. The subjective factor is to look at the characteristics of hydrogen fuel vehicles.
Features of hydrogen-fueled electric vehicles
At first glance, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles may feel strange, after all, the current new energy vehicle market seems to have been firmly occupied by electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles. In fact, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the initial stage and pure electric technology almost at the same time, but due to technology, cost, safety and other reasons have not made much progress, even so, countries, car companies have not given up on its research. General Motors began to develop fuel cells in the application of fuel cells in automobiles in 1990; South Korea's Hyundai and Japan's Toyota have also set up projects, and then major car companies have also joined the research and development camp of fuel cells. There has been no great progress for more than 20 years, but it has not been abandoned, which shows that hydrogen fuel cells have sufficient advantages.
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles combine the long mileage of gasoline vehicles, fast fuel replenishment and electric vehicles quiet, low-speed torque and many other advantages, can truly achieve zero emissions, while compared with pure electric vehicles and fuel vehicles, hydrogen energy vehicles are not only fast, and the weight of a tank of hydrogen is only a few kilograms, smaller and lighter than fuel tanks and batteries, and has more obvious advantages in long endurance, large capacity commercial vehicles, and some public transportation.
Therefore, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were once regarded as the "ultimate solution" in the field of new energy. From the product level alone, hydrogen fuel cell products are stronger than electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles.
Development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles
At present, although the scale of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is not the same as that of electric vehicles, it is also in continuous development. Since 2016, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have ushered in a breakthrough in commercialization, with sales accounting for 0.3% of global new energy passenger car sales (774384 units) in 2016. In recent years, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have continued to develop: by 2019, Hyundai Motor Corporation of South Korea announced that it will sell 10,000 NEXO hydrogen fuel cell vehicles worldwide by 2022, but as of October 2021, NEXO's cumulative global sales have exceeded 20,000, completing the task ahead of schedule, becoming the top seller in the fuel cell vehicle industry, pressing toyota Mirai and Honda's Clarality. Even so, compared with the pure electric vehicles that are developing momentum, the current market share of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is also a drop in the ocean, which is minimal.
At present, the reason for the limited development of hydrogen fuel cells is mainly due to the low penetration rate of base stations and energy manufacturing.
The current penetration of hydrogen refueling stations dwarfs that of charging stations, let alone gas stations. The construction cost of hydrogen refueling stations is close to 12 million yuan, the construction cost of a gas station or charging station is only about 2 million, and the number of gas stations in China alone exceeds 100,000, and increasing the popularity of hydrogen refueling stations is a difficult and necessary task.
Secondly, the method of hydrogen production will involve cost issues. The lowest cost is coal to hydrogen, but this involves fossil fuels, or it consumes resources and pollutes the air. Electrolyzed water to hydrogen has the advantage of environmental protection, but the total cost of industrial electricity consumption is 8 times that of coal to hydrogen, and the cost is too high. Fortunately, renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydropower are reducing the cost of hydrogen production, and hydrogen can be further supplemented by byproducts of industries such as steelmaking.
Is the spring of hydrogen fuel cells really coming?
The large-scale application of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles at the Beijing Winter Olympics can be seen as a landmark event of the mainland's strong support for hydrogen energy vehicles, in fact, before that, the mainland has implemented specific policies to support the development of hydrogen energy.
In the outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan, hydrogen energy has been forward-looking as one of the potential industries in the future. Up to now, 30 provinces and more than 150 cities in the country have mentioned hydrogen energy development in their "14th Five-Year Plan", and more than 50 cities have issued special plans for the development of local hydrogen energy industry. According to the planning goals of various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, by 2025, more than 1,000 hydrogen refueling stations will be built nationwide, and more than 54,000 hydrogen fuel vehicles will be promoted.
The China Hydrogen Energy Alliance predicts that under the carbon peak scenario in 2030, the proportion of hydrogen energy in China's terminal energy system will increase from 2.7% in 2019 to 6%, and by 2060, the carbon neutral scenario will increase to 20%.
It can be seen that the future of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can be expected. The large-scale application of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles at the Beijing Winter Olympics may become a milestone event in the development speed of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the mainland. Through the opportunity of the Winter Olympics, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will gain more heat and more consumer understanding, recognition and expectations, with favorable policies to promote the development of hydrogen energy vehicles, the spring of hydrogen fuel cells is likely to really come.