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Pike Research: over 5,200 hydrogen fuelling stations by 2020
Fuel Cells, Aug 02 2011 (The Hydrogen Journal)
- US research company Pike Research has published a report estimating that over 5,200 hydrogen fuelling stations for cars, buses and forklifts will be operational worldwide by 2020.
There were 200 stations in the year 2010.
Pike forecasts that annual investment in hydrogen stations will be $1.6bn, and annual demand for hydrogen will increase from 775,000 kg in 2010 to 418m kg in 2020.
“There is no one clear business model for the hydrogen infrastructure market at present,” says senior analyst Lisa Jerram.
“Currently, the major players in hydrogen fuelling are large multinationals: the industrial gas companies, and the energy and gas companies, both those that operate retail gas stations and those that provide fuels for the grid. These companies tend to favour large-scale hydrogen infrastructure options.”
Lisa Jerram notes that the smaller or independent hydrogen suppliers "could offer a more modular path to hydrogen infrastructure build out."
A third pathway is vehicles with low hydrogen consumption such as scooters using hydrogen cartridges sold in retail outlets.
The research estimates that forklifts will be the largest driver of hydrogen fuel by 2020, accounting to 36 per cent of the total market. Light duty vehicles will be 33 per cent of the total hydrogen market and uninterruptible power supplies 27 per cent. Buses and scooters will be a small percentage.
