From California to Gothenburg – insights from both sides of the transition

Over several days, Lew Fulton, researcher at the University of California, Davis, and Lillian Liu from the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development visited Gothenburg to discuss the transition to zero-emission transport. The programme centred on a workshop within the Vinnova-funded SENITH project and also included a seminar at Chalmers, as well as study visits to Hydri’s hydrogen refuelling station at the Port of Gothenburg and Johnson Matthey’s catalyst testing centre in Högsbo.

Following their visit to Gothenburg, the delegation travelled to Brussels for meetings with representatives from the Commission’s directorates responsible for transport, energy and climate policy.

The visit also provided an opportunity to compare experiences from California, Sweden and the European Union – and to continue discussions that Joel Löfving first initiated during his time at UC Davis.

“We had broad discussions about how to enable the deployment of hydrogen trucks. In Brussels, we focused in particular on the different funding mechanisms the EU provides to increase the availability of hydrogen, and on how various policies are designed to accelerate the uptake of electrified heavy-duty vehicles more broadly.

As in Sweden, the first hydrogen refuelling stations for trucks are already in place in California, but the major challenge now is how to get enough trucks on the road to use them,” he says.

A significant part of the discussions, particularly those held in Sweden, focused on how Sweden is working to bring new vehicle technologies to market, for example through demonstration projects, while simultaneously building practical knowledge of how the technology performs in real-world operations.

Although both California and Sweden are at the forefront of the transition, there are clear differences in how the development is being driven.

“In Sweden, hydrogen refuelling stations are being  established along major highways to create a network for long-haul transport in line with EU requirements. In California, truck refuelling stations for trucks have primarily been built around ports, with a focus on shorter-distance transport in those areas, where air pollution remains a significant challenge.”

According to Löfving, these differences also influence how the transition is framed and discussed.

“In California, electrification and hydrogen are to a much greater extent seen as solutions for reducing the impact of transport emissions on public health, whereas in Sweden we tend to focus more on climate change. It has been interesting to learn how the way we talk about the transition – and the motivations behind it – influences the systems we choose to invest in and ultimately the applications we enable.”

At the same time, stakeholders on both sides of the Atlantic face many of the same challenges.

“To a large extent, it comes down to costs. There is a strong willingness to move forward, but companies are concerned about investing in solutions that may not become more affordable over time, and about whether sufficient infrastructure will be available.”

The visit has also laid the groundwork for continued collaboration between researchers in Sweden and California.

“We are bringing with us a great deal of inspiration for the work we are doing together with UC Davis. In particular, we are looking forward to further collaboration through a newly funded research project called HyLo, in which we will work with truck demonstrations in Sweden. We hope the project will also generate valuable insights for California and allow us to continue sharing knowledge and experiences.”

Despite the progress being made, several challenges remain before hydrogen can achieve wider adoption in heavy-duty transport, says Joel Löfving.

“We need to continue expanding hydrogen production and refuelling infrastructure if companies are going to be willing to invest in hydrogen trucks. At the same time, we need to accelerate the rollout of hydrogen-powered vehicles in order to increase the utilisation of the infrastructure that already exists. Otherwise, it will be difficult to bring down the cost of hydrogen – and of the system as a whole.”