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Shell Is Immediately Closing All Of Its California Hydrogen Stations | The oil giant is one of the big players in hydrogen globally, but even it can't make its operations work here. (insideevs.com)

submitted 8 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Shell Is Immediately Closing All Of Its California Hydrogen Stations | The oil giant is one of the big players in hydrogen globally, but even it can't make its operations work here.::The oil giant is one of the big players in hydrogen globally, but even it can't make its operations work here. All seven of its California stations will close immediately.

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[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

I’m not sure I buy that. Yes, their electrical grid is a mismatched nightmare, that they should have taken the hit on decades ago. However I see that small chargers for things like phones can adjust to pretty much any electrical grid: why shouldn’t we expect the charger in the car to be equally flexible? Either way, it’s converting to DC

Edit: the article didn’t talk about the differences, except frequency: if the only difference is 50Hz vs 60Hz, most analog electrical stuff probably also works on both. The real problem is they don’t have interconnects nor do they have a regulatory structure allowing separate generating oroviders

[–] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 11 points 8 months ago

My main point was about capacity, and how the separate grid(s?) hinder attempts to add the capacity needed for EVs. I wasn't really clear on that though. mb

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I thought auto ranging power supplies were typically for voltage but not frequency.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Every one I’ve seen gives ranges like 100-240v ac, at 50-60 Hz.

Then electrical grids are large complex systems defined in analog days and subject to variances for weather, usage, distances, etc, so they also need to support that variability

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Even larger appliances like refrigerators, ovens/ranges, etc? Some of these might be 10+ years old.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Digital power supplies usually support most electrical grids

Analog electrical stuff must handle the allowed variability in the grid and may be able to adjust from 60Hz to 50 Hz: for example a clock probably uses a crystal to establish a reliable frequency instead of relying on the grid frequency. Some labels may include this info, especially since everything has been globalized. However it’s going to depend. Some will. Some won’t.

However analog electrical can’t usually adjust between 120v and 240v, or similar, depending on where you are. This is the part where things can fail spectacularly