Hamburg Is Ready to Fill Up With Hydrogen. Customers Aren’t So Sure.<br />A Swedish energy company, Vattenfall, built the station at a cost of 6 million euros in 2012, anticipating growing numbers of hydrogen-powered cars,<br />and especially buses, that would guzzle large volumes of the fuel.<br />If the orders are fulfilled, Mr. Schrank estimated the project would break even, based on the investments by Alstom<br />and the German government, which has put in €8 million ($8.9 million).<br />The filling station in Hamburg, part of several bets on hydrogen in this German<br />port city, reflects the great appeal, and challenge, of this clean fuel.<br />“Our aircraft do go to some very remote places,” said Barnaby Law, the company’s<br />project director for hydrogen and fuel cells, who is based in Hamburg.<br />“We do see some expectations that were not met,” said Klaus Bonhoff, head of the National Organization Hydrogen<br />and Fuel Cell Technology, which manages the government’s programs involving the fuel.<br />The German government, along with private companies like Royal Dutch Shell, Daimler<br />and the industrial gas giant Air Liquide, has invested about €1.4 billion over the past decade to nurture the development of hydrogen vehicles.
