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Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to
be here today to testify on behalf of General Motors. I am Byron McCormick,
Executive Director of GM's Global Fuel Cell Activities, and I head the team that
is developing our hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles.
The Promise of Hydrogen Fuel Cells
Fuel cells and hydrogen are core to GM's advanced propulsion strategy. We are
committed to improving the fuel economy and emissions performance of our
vehicles by executing a comprehensive three-phase technology plan that includes
advanced internal combustion engines and new transmissions in the near term,
followed by hybrid vehicles … but our ultimate vision is to establish
leadership in hydrogen fuel cells.
Today, I would like to tell you why General Motors believes hydrogen fuel cell
vehicles are so important.
· Fuel cell vehicles running on hydrogen fuel are the ultimate environmentally
friendly vehicles because their only emission is water. The fuel cell supplies
electricity to an electric motor that powers the wheels. The fuel cell produces
electricity by stripping electrons from hydrogen that travels through a membrane
to combine with oxygen to form water.
· Fuel cell vehicles are on the order of twice as energy efficient as the
internal combustion engine, have no pollutant emissions, and are quiet.
· Fuel cell vehicles enable energy feedstock diversity, which will increase
energy independence and introduce competition into energy pricing - potentially
bringing down fuel and energy costs in the long term and making prices more
stable.
· Hydrogen fuel cells can substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions. When
we look at fuel cell vehicles on a "well-to-wheel" basis, they
demonstrate outstanding potential to reduce or eliminate well-to-wheel
greenhouse gas emissions and improve overall energy efficiency, even taking into
consideration how we make hydrogen today. In the future, we can do even better,
producing hydrogen using methods that are renewable and have no adverse
environmental impact.
· Fuel cells also enable innovative vehicle designs that show promise of being
more compelling, affordable, and sustainable than today's vehicles. Today, there
are over six billion people in the world. By the end of this century, that
number will approach 10 billion. Most of these people will reside in emerging
economies where the demand for personal transportation is expected to escalate
rapidly. Since only 12 percent of the world's population currently own
automobiles, if we are to fulfill the aspirations of the remaining 88 percent
for the personal freedom that the automobile provides, we must find the means to
make our vehicles sustainable, more functional, and more affordable.
· Finally, fuel cells are a potential source not only of transportation power,
but also of electrical power. The development of this technology will create
new, more environmentally compatible distributed electric power-generation
possibilities. The automobile could provide electrical power to homes and
worksites. Power on today's electrical grid could be supplemented by the
generating capacity of cars in every driveway. For example, if only one out of
every 25 cars in California today was a fuel cell vehicle, their generating
capacity would exceed that of the utility grid. A typical midsize fuel cell
vehicle would produce 50 to 75 kilowatts of electrical power, where a typical
household may use 7 to 10 kilowatts at peak load.
General Motors' Fuel Cell Development Program
Recognizing the potential of fuel cell technology, approximately six years ago
General Motor consolidated and accelerated its fuel cell activities. The GM fuel
cell team was given an important directive by management: Take the automobile
out of the environmental debate. Regardless of whether the environmental debate
is focused on air quality, climate, or overall sustainability, GM leadership
recognized that global conditions must inspire bold, thoughtful actions. Our
commitment to fuel cells is clear in the significance of our investment - we
have spent more than a billion dollars to date, and growing.
This investment in our fuel cell program has yielded outstanding results:
· In the last four years, we have decreased the size and weight of our fuel
cell stack for a given power by a factor of ten.
· With each new generation of technology, we have also reduced the cost and
complexity of our stack.
· We also are now able to start fuel cells from freezing - minus-40° Celsius
(minus-40° Fahrenheit) - in substantially less than a minute.
· We have developed a series of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which demonstrate
how fuel cell propulsion can be optimized for the existing automobile. Our
HydroGen1 prototype holds 15 fuel cell vehicle performance records and has been
demonstrated around the world. HydroGen3 is our first fuel cell vehicle able to
dispense with a buffer battery, needed in previous generations to meet
performance peaks. With an improved electric drive and optimized fuel cell
system architecture, HydroGen3 has outstanding acceleration and is capable of
easily cruising at 100 miles per hour.
· We also have created the AUTOnomy fuel cell concept and a drivable prototype
called Hy-wire. These vehicles combine fuel cells with by-wire electronics and
other advanced technologies in a revolutionary design that "reinvents"
the automobile. These designs could make vehicles both more affordable and more
compelling for our customers because they enable substantially enhanced
functionality with fewer vehicle components, a longer-life chassis, and a
smaller number of vehicle architectures - all of which have the potential to
reduce manufacturing costs.
· We also are testing our fuel cell vehicles in the real world. Over the next
few years, we will be fielding several small demonstration fleets. GM and Shell
Oil recently began a joint demonstration program here in Washington, D.C. to
test fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen fueling technology. The two-year program,
which began earlier this month, will give government officials - like you and
your staffs - the chance to experience firsthand what driving a fuel cell
vehicle is like. Next month, in partnership with FedEx, we will begin our first
commercial trial of a fuel cell vehicle. This program, which will take place in
Japan, will run for one year. Our HydroGen3 vehicle is being used in both
demonstration programs.
These milestones represent remarkable progress. In fact, we believe our rate of
progress will allow us to market stationary fuel cell units by mid-decade and to
introduce hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2010. But even as we are encouraged by
our progress to date, it is crucial to recognize that the race for fuel cell
development is a marathon, not a sprint. No one should overlook that major
economic and technical obstacles must be conquered before these vehicles can be
brought to market and can become commercially successful.
Fuel Cell Commercialization Challenges
Hydrogen storage, cost, and fuel infrastructure are the major barriers to
commercialization.
Hydrogen Storage: With respect to the vehicle, hydrogen storage is the toughest
hurdle. GM has demonstrated both cryogenic liquid and compressed hydrogen
storage tanks in our prototype vehicles. While these methods will suffice for
early market introduction, over the long term, we should seek "solid"
storage techniques such as chemical or metal hydrides, which will more
efficiently and cost-effectively store significant amounts of hydrogen on board
the vehicle.
Cost: The key economic challenge over the coming years is to reduce cost. Our
goal is to attain a cost target of $50 per kilowatt for our fuel cell propulsion
system (from stored hydrogen to torque at the wheels) by 2010. This equates to
the cost of a conventional internal combustion engine. To this end, we have
achieved a cost improvement with each new generation of fuel cell stack
technology, and we have a good understanding of the additional progress we must
make in reducing the cost of each subsystem to achieve total system
affordability.
As we reduce cost to get to automobile-scale applications, many attractive
business applications for stationary fuel cells are developing. In fact, we see
distributed generation as a key steppingstone to the introduction of fuel cell
vehicles. Working with our strategic partners, we have developed several fuel
cell power generators using the same fuel cell stack technology as we are
developing for our fuel cell vehicles. Earlier this month, here in Washington,
we announced an agreement by Dow Chemical to purchase 35 megawatts of fuel cell
power from GM. This is the largest contract to date in the fuel cell industry.
Under the seven-year agreement, 500 GM fuel cell units will convert co-product
hydrogen from Dow's chemical manufacturing processes into electricity and heat
for its facility in Freeport, Texas. Dow is also considering using fuel cell
power at several of its other plants worldwide.
We also recently announced that we will conduct a demonstration of a 75-kilowatt
direct-hydrogen unit in both the U.S. and Japan. We expect to be able to market
these units in the 2005 timeframe. Early units are intended to provide backup
electricity for uninterruptible power supply systems, such as hospitals and
high-reliability data communications networks, and to handle peak power demands.
Real-time power markets and common interconnection standards for small-scale
fuel cell power units could be a key enabler to the early roll out of stationary
applications of our fuel cell technology and, by extension, the early rollout of
fuel cell vehicles. It should be emphasized that every hydrogen-fuel cell
distributed electric generator is a potential vehicle filling station, since the
hydrogen is by definition available at that location - which means that
distributed electric generation is a critical steppingstone to the hydrogen
refueling infrastructure.
Fueling Infrastructure: The third challenge we have to overcome is developing
business models for the deployment of a hydrogen infrastructure and piloting
technologies to support it.
One of the more exciting aspects of hydrogen is that there are many scenarios
for producing and delivering it. Hydrogen could be generated at local filling
stations from gasoline or natural gas, using an appliance-like devise called a
"reformer." Hydrogen also offers the potential for refueling at home
using an electrolyzer or natural gas reformer. This takes advantage of the fact
that water, electricity, and natural gas are already available in our homes and
businesses.
Initially, hydrogen will likely be produced from many sources. Steam reforming
of natural gas will probably be the first source because industry already uses
this technique to produce large amounts of hydrogen - nine million tons per
year. This process does produce carbon dioxide - about half as much as gasoline
on a well-to-wheel basis. The cost of natural gas would presumably go up due to
limited supply. However, it is doubtful that hydrogen demand will increase so
rapidly as to adversely affect the supply of natural gas. There should be
sufficient supplies to produce hydrogen for the early years of fuel cell
introduction. We estimate that if we had one million fuel cell cars on the road
and all of the hydrogen for those cars came from reformed natural gas, it would
increase the current demand for hydrogen by 0.2 percent. If you had ten million
fuel cell vehicles, it would increase current demand by 2 percent.
Petroleum companies have said that hydrogen can be generated from natural gas
today at approximately the same cost as conventional fuel. A key issue will be
implementation of an efficient new hydrogen distribution system. Implementation
would include "on site" creation of hydrogen from various feedstocks
via electrolysis and reformer technologies. Again, a key ingredient will be
nationally uniform codes and standards to ensure rapid implementation.
Call to Action
GM has always believed that it will take a three-way partnership involving the
auto industry, energy companies, and government to successfully commercialize
hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles and stationary applications. There are a number
of areas where government could have an immediate impact:
We would welcome a major new national R&D initiative on hydrogen storage and
production that would leverage the creative capabilities of our government labs,
universities, and industrial research facilities.
We would also like to see a similar aggressive R&D program focused on
breakthrough fuel cell materials.
We believe the Department of Transportation should "undeclare"
hydrogen as a hazardous material and treat it as a fuel.
And since federal and state agencies will have a role in the transition to the
hydrogen economy and they should begin that process today by evaluating the use
and impact of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in their operations.
Finally, the government should take the lead on development of a national
template for the codes and standards that will be required for hydrogen, fuel
cells, and distributed electric generation.
Summary
To summarize GM's position on the emerging hydrogen economy:
1. We see fuel cells as the long-term power source. GM's global fuel cell
program seeks to create affordable, full-performance, exciting fuel cell
vehicles that meet or exceed customer expectations and emit only water vapor
from their tailpipes. We believe that customers will want to buy these vehicles.
2. We see hydrogen as the long-term fuel.
3. With continued progress on technology, we think fuel cell vehicles could be
cost competitive by the beginning of the next decade.
4. We think stationary fuel cells will pave the way for fuel cell vehicles. By
taking our vehicle fuel cell technology to the stationary power market, we are
learning how to improve fuel cell reliability and durability, move further down
the cost curve, build the required manufacturing and supply base, and accelerate
infrastructure development.
5. When we think of hydrogen infrastructure, we think of appliances not just
pipelines. Traditional infrastructure such as pipelines and centralized plants
is not the only means to provide hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles, although it
will be part of the solution. If hydrogen is made from natural gas at fueling
stations or homes, it will not be necessary to transport hydrogen. We will need
cost-effective and efficient reformer appliances. Similarly, if hydrogen is made
via electrolysis, we will need practical and affordable electrolyzer appliances.
This is an area ripe for entrepreneurial exploration and rapid implementation.
For this reason, we are stressing the need for governmental action on nationally
uniform standards for distributed electric generation, hydrogen storage, and
safety codes.
6. We are focusing on small demonstration projects for the next 3-5 years, to
gain engineering knowledge that we will apply to technology development still
needed for the vehicle and to increase our cycles of learning with respect to
infrastructure requirements and the codes and standards that need to be
addressed to enable the use of hydrogen as our future automotive fuel. I would
just caution that demonstration projects are costly and require many of the same
resources we are using to refine fuel cell technology, particularly on the
vehicle side. In the next couple of years, the goal should be to have a limited
number of small-scale - but integrated - demonstration projects and then expand
those projects later in this decade.
7. In the 5-10 year timeframe, we see industry cooperating with government on
larger-scale, real commercial projects that leave a legacy of infrastructure.
In closing, I believe hydrogen and fuel cell-based transportation are the
future. The pace of technical progress is accelerating. The U.S. cannot be left
behind or sitting on the sidelines. It is clear that we are in an intense global
competition for leadership in this race to establish and commercialize fuel cell
technologies. In Japan, the kyogikai (which are companies operating under
government auspices) are developing a program for the implementation of fuel
cell technology. Now is the time for the U.S. government, U.S. industry, and
U.S. universities to create a partnership that can lead the world in the charge
to achieve this vision.
General Motors and our partners are driving to bring first-generation fuel cell
technology to market as rapidly as possible.
Thank you.
I look forward to responding to your questions.
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