Currently, only 70 distribution facilities hydrogen exist in the world. The first network of service stations hydrogen expected to be operational in 2010 in Japan and North America, although there are occasionally service stations hydrogen in a number of countries (including Germany and Iceland). The deployment of a comprehensive system of distribution, which should in any case coexist with the existing network and, where appropriate, with a network of exchange of batteries in the event of a development of electric cars, would be prohibitively expensive. An estimate of General Motors figure this burden for the United States between 10 and 15 billion dollars.

But the main issue is not there. If it can reasonably rely ultimately on the resolution of these constraints by the emergence of new processes, the delicate ecological balance equation remains.


The filiere hydrogene: nothing is lost everything is transformed


On our planet hydrogen is present in any form directly exploitable. Currently, 48% of the global hydrogen is produced from natural gas, 30% oil, 18% of coal, and the remaining 4% from electrolysis. In the end, the use of the CAP will have a beneficial impact on the environment on condition that they be able to produce massive quantities of hydrogen in a sustainable manner. And today the only solution to produce massive ecological the hydrogen is electrolysis of water. This process does not emit CO2 if electricity is not generated by thermal power plants. But nuclear energy is the only solution to produce electricity not heat in large quantities. But in France, that would double the fleet of nuclear power plants to feed all road transport hydrogen prior to the deployment reactors 4 ° generation (circa 2030).

In sum 96% of hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels emitters of greenhouse gases. The production by water electrolysis copes hydrocarbons, but is a method which is expensive and environmentally attractive in terms of CO2 balance that with use of electricity from a clean source (wind, hydro , solar, etc..). But these renewables are not sufficient to ensure the necessary energy supply. Only the nuclear by the performance and not to emit greenhouse gases is likely to meet the conditions for an ecological balance satisfactory.

That means we have to limit the reasoning ecologist, advocating the use of the CAP but opposed to nuclear power, it spreads once again its inconsistencies to be found in the area of biofuels entire surface of cultivable France there is sufficient not, but he would like the norm. Riding in a vehicle operating with a PAC n'à no meaning other than that of snobbery if hydrogen from hydrocarbons, or whether it was produced with the thermal electricity. That would make Hollywood stars such as these sores or who pavanent Toyota Prius in the weekend and use their 4x4 during the week: Saving a nearby pollution on the other. In the same vein it would be interesting to know the supply chains of municipalities that have established a network of hydrogen buses. It is pointless to move properly in his city to pollute a little further in the plant for hydrogen production. If it makes it easier to breathe in her neighborhood, it is irrelevant in terms of global warming.


This is not to condemn the CAP, but only to take into account the whole subject in its technical, economic and environmental. The difficult issue of energy transition called multiple answers, in their thoughts and their specific globally. Undoubtedly, in the transport sector CAP provides a true solution to the reduction of fossil fuels and the problem of the greenhouse effect. But let us not delude ourselves; isolation CAP will be an alternative generalizable to the entire park road that from 2030 with the advent of nuclear reactors 4 ° generation. In the meantime only the combination of various technologies will solve the environmental equation.