EVS, hydrogen and the pain of change
Any social media post regarding EVS is usually met with a hail of laugh emojis and comments so sour they’d turn a loaf of bread mouldy. A recent Facebook post by the Waipā District Council about the new electric buses that were being added to the local fleet was met with dozens of scathing comments - ‘Waste of money/woke nonsense/they’ll catch fire and burn’ being the general thrust.
The ‘woke nonsense’ was predictable, the same people haunt any sort of social media post about climate change, Māori language and LGBTQ with similar dismissive incredulity, but burning EV buses required further investigation.
Turns out that statistically EV buses are less likely to catch fire than their fossil fuelled counterparts though EV fires are harder to put out, which is problematic but no reason to spurn the technology.
The day after that story I was on my way into a local supermarket when one of those new electric buses came around the corner and pulled up at the nearby bus stop and the sound of tyres on the tarmac aside, it was spookily quiet and best of all, no fumes. I can’t wait to try it, fire risk and all. A recent story on German public media international (DW) about garbage trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells caught my attention.
Turns out that Germany is well on its way to transitioning its fleet of 12,000 diesel vehicles to renewables (a mix of electric, hydrogen fuel cell and hydrogen combustion).
Trucks running on hydrogen fuel cells are largely noiseless and perfect for densely populated areas especially as this sort of work takes place in the early hours when folk are trying to sleep. Then there’s the lack of harmful emissions.
The drivers report feeling pretty good about it as well - the respite from engine noise was having a positive effect on mental wellbeing.
Germany isn’t alone, buses and trucks powered by renewables are part of a quiet manufacturing revolution and cities all over the world are racing to adopt the technology.
All of it nonsense according to the tsunami of comments responding to a recent RNZ Facebook post about South Auckland’s first hydrogen fuelling station, the nation's third.
The most interesting thing about the comment thread was the story it told about a particular social subgroup who are unable to come to terms with any sort of change.
A few weeks back I watched a bloke in a diesel van pull up in front of an EV charging port in central Cambridge. There were empty spaces either side but his intent was clear as he opened the van’s window and proceeded to make himself comfortable.
He was showing his disdain for the technology that was upending his world view. The bloke in the Ford Ranger who smashed four Tesla charging stations in Taupō in March was making the same sort of objection albeit in a more aggressive way.
None of this is new or unusual. The advent of trains, vaccinations, telephones and automobiles was met with similar. When sound recording became a thing in the late 19th century many popular singers refused to take part believing it to be ‘unnatural’- besides ‘it will never catch on’.
At the last Groundswell protest in Cambridge there were numerous placards bemoaning the last governments attempts to reign in the use of fuel hungry utes for non-commercial purposes. ‘Get rid of her not our Utes’ was a complete misrepresentation of the so-called ‘Ute tax’.
A farm contractor I knew was waving his placard about and getting a bit emotional. “She’s gonna take my ute and I’ll have nowhere to put the kids’ boots after Saturday rugby.”
I wanted to say something about the car boot but in the interests of calm I said that before we know it electric utes will be standard and all of this will be redundant. Looking close to apoplexy he replied “That’ll never happen, it’s impossible”.
Mass production of EV utes is well underway with EV versions of best selling brands like Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger on their way to market as we speak.
Then there’s farm tractors and construction machinery.
All the world's major manufacturers are tooling up with options that will include hydrogen combustion, methane and electric.
There is still a way to go and a multitude of adaptations ahead before the transition to renewables gets fully underway but it’s happening and happening fast.
We only have to look to our smartphones to see how rapidly technological change happens in the 21st century.
In 2000 my job required me to carry around a beast of a cell phone that was limited by coverage that was so haphazard I often wondered why I even bothered.
Twenty-four years later and it’s been superseded by a powerful pocket sized computer and no matter where I am on the farm there’s 5G coverage. As for the old copper wire network, it’s being phased out because it’s inefficient, clunky and besides, hardly anyone uses landlines anymore.
For the next wee while petrol and diesel powered vehicles will be sharing the roads with EVS and the like but before we know it, fossil fuelled engines will be the exception rather than the rule and then in a blink of an eye, like steam trains, landlines and singers who thought recording was crazy, they’ll be gone.
Change is intrinsic and inescapable, you roll with it or it rolls over you.