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[Richard230]

 This stop on the California Hydrogen Highway has finally been completed after years of construction at a cost of millions of dollars. And it is located where hydrogen-powered vehicles are unlikely to travel - across from Alice's Restaurant, located in the Santa Cruz Mountains, about 50 miles south of San Francisco. While the station may now be completed there appears to be no one to operate it, likely because they can't find anyone that can sleep long enough for a customer to arrive.    If I ever see a customer there, I will be sure to take a photo.    I wonder how many L2 charging stations you could build with the money that was spent on that facility. 

[Curt]

Surely the pump can be operated without an attendant present?

But sheesh, I couldn't agree more. $2.1 million of the $2.8 million cost was granted by the state of California from taxpayers to generate up to 100kg per day which can fill up to "20" cars per day.

There are only a couple thousand hydrogen vehicles in California. Electric cars are being added at a rate more than 20x hydrogen, there are only 3 hydrogen vehicle manufacturers, battery is 200% more efficient than hydrogen, etc.

There should be at least two level 2 plugs at STP by now, and two more across the street at Alice's, what with the large and rapidly growing number of Teslas and other EVs (ours!) roaming around Silicon Valley.

[togo]

I met someone who actually has a hydrogen car the other day,
Rep. Quirk of Alameda.

We chatted a bit about how refueling works.  It's tricky the first
couple of times, apparently, and sometimes the station doesn't
have any fuel.

[Richard230]

Someone left the door to the Hydrogen Highway open today and no one was around, so went in and took a photo of the very expensive equipment that does nothing but operate a light on top of one of the electrical cabinets. What a waste of money!   

[Richard230]

H2 reaches New Jersey, but no highway to drive on yet:     
https://jalopnik.com/behold-the-most-mysterious-used-car-for-sale-in-americ-1837933507/amp

[togo]

"the hose from the fuel dispenser blew off next to this guy and caused an explosion. That’s not ideal."

Yeah, not ideal.

Electricity may spark, but at least it doesn't explode.  And there are mechanisms at public electric stations to prevent plugging and unplugging when high voltage is present.

[Richard230]

I stopped by to check out the Hydrogen Highway across from Alice's Restaurant today and found the door to the facility open, so I walked in and looked around. Right now the highway is growing tall weeds, the facility is making a lot of noise that sounds like a working refinery and the red warning light is lit. I kind of wonder who is paying the power bill, why the red light is on (and what it means) and why the gate was open?. What a waste of someone's money. 

[Richard230]

Here is another photo of the works.

[Crissa]

That looks rather abandoned and a bit of a fire hazard.

-Crissa

[Richard230]

That looks rather abandoned and a bit of a fire hazard.

-Crissa

I continue to wonder why the electrical power remains on and what the facility is doing with that power? I bet it could be put to a more useful purpose.

[MikeL]

I've been to Alice's plenty of times and I haven't once seen someone fuel up using that thing. Such a waste.

[Crissa]

Think of the number of cars and bikes that would have charged up had it been a CCS/J-Plug stop instead.

-Crissa

[togo]

Thanks for the update.  What a waste.

[Curt]

I dug up the 2015 article again. https://almanacnews.com/news/2015/08/04/skylonda-residents-await-hydrogen-fuel-station

It's so upsetting. This absolute boondoggle special interest project, a completely foreseeable abject failure, was paid for by your and my tax dollars. The California Energy Commission dropped $2.1 million into that garbage shed, as well as an additional $100,000 per year for three years to operate it. I suspect now that the three years are up and all the money has dried up, nobody gives a f*ck about that useless liability.

The state politicians should held responsible. Note that the Energy Commission is still there soliciting stupid ways to spend the arbitrary budget approved by legislation like Assembly Bill 8.

Based on the cost of installing charging stations, they could have installed 4 DCFC and 4 L2 chargers up there and still had a boatloads of cash left over.

[Crissa]

I don't know that the politicians were responsible but we seriously need a better way to ferret out waste and corruption.  From fake environmental impact challenges to false prevailing wage documentation, trumped up permit fees and contractor malfeasance...

...We sorta need a specific professional corps to investigate and some slapp laws deal with this stuff.

So many things are just let sit empty while the rentiers dither and take more profit while jobs sit in limbo either in court or the permit office with no clear path.

-Crissa