When you get your hydrogen fuel cell car in 2015, can you imagine owning a piece of your local hydrogen fueling station?
Here is a way to build the initial hydrogen fueling stations that does not involve the federal government or the oil companies.
The idea is to get 2000 people that live reasonably close to each other to agree to buy a hydrogen car and finance a hydrogen fueling station that will be built close to where they live. Large-scale hydrogen fueling stations cost approximately $5 million each. This would translate to $2500 per person.
Each person would agree to pay the extra $2500 (which would be around $50-70 per month depending on the interest rate if financed over 5 years) when they sign a contract to purchase a hydrogen car. And then they would own 1/2000th of the hydrogen fueling station which would be a cooperative.
This solves the hydrogen infrastructure “chicken and egg” problem since the hydrogen vehicles and fueling stations would come at the same time. Furthermore, it would demonstrate a viable business model for building the hydrogen infrastructure that could be replicated across the U.S. and around the world.
The hydrogen fueling station could be run by members of the cooperative or the operation of the facility could be outsourced. Just like with gas stations today, this cost would be covered by money made from fuel and convenience store sales.
Once the hydrogen fueling station is up and running, the people who paid the $2500 and own part of it would get a “Member” fuel price. Anybody else who buys a hydrogen car after them (and does not pay $2500 for the hydrogen fueling station) would have to pay a “Non-member” fuel price which might be something like $1 more per kilogram of hydrogen (e.g. $7 instead of $6).
Any profits from the hydrogen fueling station could be paid back to the 2000 owners every quarter or year in the form of dividend checks. And eventually the hydrogen fueling station could be sold and each person would receive 1/2000th of that amount. Therefore, each person would make back part or perhaps even all of the $2500 initial investment over time.
The car companies would likely have to get customers to sign a contract agreeing to purchase the hydrogen fuel cell car after it has been built. And at the same time, customers would also need to pay the entire amount to cover the fueling stations ($2500).
This would likely be done 2 or 2 ½ years before the hydrogen cars and fueling stations were scheduled to be ready. It would likely take that long to build the cars and fueling stations.
One of the amazing things is that hydrogen fueling station cooperatives could pretty much be done anywhere there are 2000 people who live pretty close to each other who want to do this.
Furthermore, the idea is scalable. For example, it could work for 2000 people financing one hydrogen fueling station in one specific part of Los Angeles.
Or maybe 100,000 people who live in various parts of Los Angeles could build 50 hydrogen fueling stations all around the metro area and each person would get the “Member” fuel price at each location. This scenario is actually much more practical than having one fueling station since most people will almost certainly want to be able to refuel at more than one location.
Hydrogen fueling station cooperatives could be done without any help from the oil companies or the federal government. They would be a true grassroots effort that could totally reshape the energy power structure.
[Photo credit: ideowl]
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