The Left Handed Screwdriver Award

I have blogged several times about how we have paid high prices for supposed green technologies that simply were not worth the money being spent on them.  I awarded screwdrivers and calculated the imputed carbon tax in dollars per short ton for these dumass ideas to lower CO2 emissions and then priced the screwdriver accordingly.   Now I have found the dumassist green project in the world other than the Bloom Coffin.  Note the Bloom coffins have an infinite carbon tax and no one can afford that screwdriver.

This project is in Whistler British Columbia Canada.  The transport authority BC Transit bought 20 fuel cell buses to transport folks in the beautiful and pristine resort in the Canadian Rockies.

The 20 fool cell buses cost 42 million Canadian dollars to buy and were primarily funded by the BC provincial government.  They could have bought 20 diesel buses for $10 million Canadian.  The fuel for the proton exchange membrane fuel cells is liquid hydrogen that is shipped in from Beconcour Quebec where it is manufactured some 5,200 kilometers away from Whistler.  The cryogenic tanker truck uses diesel and hauls a load of about 4 short tons of liquid hydrogen as the liquid hydrogen has a very low specific gravity (7% that of water) and a big crogenic tanker does not hold much mass of hydrogen.  The tanker truck returns back to Quebec empty.   At best the tanker truck achieves 7 MPG on the diesel and each round trip of 10,400 kilometers needs 928.6 gallons of diesel.

Of course the liquid hydrogen is produced using hydroelectric power in Quebec so I did not impute any carbon foot print to the manufacturing of the hydrogen only to the transportation.

Over the course of the program, the 20 buses have travelled 3.4 million kilometers and consumed 515,600 kilograms of hydrogen.  Each trip from Quebec has 1,818 kg of load of liquid hydrogen.   Approximately 10% is lost along the way and in transferring the cryogenic liquid hence 1,636 kg are delivered in each load.  Therefore 315.16 loads were needed and 292,656 gallons of diesel were needed to transport the hydrogen.  Had the buses simply travelled the 3.4 million kilometers on diesel 303,571 gallons of diesel would have been used.  The net savings on diesel is therefore a paltry 10,815 gallons over the entire project period.  

Well to wheels a gallon of diesel emits 28 pounds of CO2.  Therefore 10,815 gallons of diesel that is not consumed saved 137.6 metric tons of CO2 emissions going into the air.  As the hydrogen is much more expensive than diesel and as the maintenance costs of the fuel cells was more than diesel engines the whole program cost $89 million Canadian in subsidies.    Had they bought diesel buses, maintained the diesel buses, and bought diesel that program would have cost $12 million Canadian.  The extra cost is $77 million Canadian to save 10,815 gallons of diesel.  

 The imputed carbon tax for this gangrene project $559,430 Canadian per tonne of CO2.   Not shabby as a carbon offset for a tonne of CO2 emissions trades in Europe for less than $6 Canadian.  I guess the folks in Whistler got tired of paying 93,238 times too much for their saved CO2 and the program will likely end next year.

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Whistler+hydrogen+fuel+cell+program+jeopardy/9212028/story.html

Al Gore was seen whistling a happy tune in Whistler and was heard saying $559,430 a tonne of CO2 is cheap when Bloom manages to sell the same Tonne for an infinite price.  Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack was heard saying I will buy CO2 at the $559,430 and will give the Canadian Bio-diesel made from pine trees in Mississippi.  Dr. Moniz was heard saying what me worry it’s only the people’s money!

The Green Machine was heard saying whistle while we work to pay for this utter nonsense of paying $559,430 for a left handed screwdriver.