Increased economic integration between Japan and South Korea makes so much sense:
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed Friday to work together to cut costs and establish international rules in the hydrogen sector.
During a discussion at Stanford University, the two leaders talked about ways their countries can cooperate in the hydrogen sector, given South Korea’s wide use of hydrogen cars and Japan’s large number of hydrogen-related patents.
Both Yoon and Kishida attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco this week.
The discussion came a day after they held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit, their seventh bilateral summit this year, as Seoul and Tokyo push to mend and develop their relationship after years of tensions over historical disputes.
You can read more at the link, but hydrogen cars are great if you have nuclear or hydro energy to power the process to create hydrogen. If coal or gas plants are used the emissions savings is actually negligible for hydrogen cars.
Hydroelectric garbage truckA hydroelectric fuel cell garbage car, for export, is unveiled during a ceremony to declare a national vision for future cars at the carmaker’s Namyang R&D Center in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, on Oct. 15, 2019. (Yonhap)
It will be interesting to see if hydrogen fuel cell car technology takes off in South Korea or not:
President Moon Jae-in listens to a Hyundai Motor manager explain hydrogen-powered vehicles and drones before attending an event on hydrogen power in Ulsan on Thursday. [YONHAP]
The government hopes the so-called hydrogen economy will create 420,000 jobs by 2040.
On Thursday, the government laid out a roadmap to making hydrogen-related technologies a key new growth engine for Korea.
The government wants to boost the hydrogen economy, which is currently valued at 1 trillion won ($890 million), to 16 trillion won in 2022, 25 trillion won by 2030 and 43 trillion won by 2040. Jobs in the industry are supposed to grow from the current 10,000 to 100,000 in 2022 and 200,000 in 2030.
At an event in Ulsan attended by President Moon Jae-in, Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Sung Yun-mo and the Hyundai Motor Group heir apparent and vice chairman, Chung Eui-sun, the government described plans to raise the sales of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (or FCEVs) to 810,000 units in total by 2022. That figure includes 670,000 sold in the local market and 14,000 units exported. This year alone, the government is hoping for more than 4,000 FCEV unit sales.
You can read more at the link, but the big problem with hydrogen fuel cells cars in the fueling infrastructure to support them. It is very expensive to open a hydrogen fuel cell station compared to a gas station or even an electrical vehicle charging station.
