The Next Big Thing: Charlotte

Excerpt from "The next big thing: As Charlotte looks beyond banking, diverse sectors vie for future play" article in The Mecklenburg Times by Austin Light and Sam Boykin, published by Dolan Media Newswires on December 22, 2009.

CHARLOTTE, NC -- When former Mayor Pat McCrory left office after 14 years of leading the city, he said Charlotte is far more diverse than many give it credit for. It's a good thing, too, since instability in the city's banking sector means Charlotte's reliance on its "bank town" reputation might be coming to an end.

Fortunately, several diverse sectors - from green energy to the film industry - are vying to become bigger players in the city's economy,and the advocates of each believe it could be the next big thing people associate with the Queen City. As the recession ends, a new decade begins and the election of Mayor Anthony Foxx puts the city under new leadership for the first time in more than a decade, any one of them could come into play. [Full Article]

Hydrolley

The Charlotte City Council voted in September to start design work on a 10-mile streetcar line, which would run from Beatties Ford Road to Eastland Mall via Uptown. Officials will evaluate several streetcar propulsion systems, including one based on hydrogen. If the city moves forward on a hydrolley - or hydrogen-powered streetcar - it would be the first of its kind in the country.

For Stan Thompson, the decision also would validate years of work.

Thompson, who co-chairs the volunteer-based Hydrogen Economy Advancement Team in Mooresville, is one of the area's biggest proponents of hydrogen-powered public transportation. His goal is to turn the Charlotte region into a center for the development of hydrogen technology.

To that end, Thompson has pitched North Carolina as a good business location to Dale Hill, CEO of Proterra LLC. The Colorado company designs and manufactures zero-emission, heavy-duty vehicles, including hydrogen-hybrid and battery-electric buses. Hill told the Charlotte City Council in 2008 that he was considering Mooresville as the site for a new vehicle factory, but the company now is negotiating with Greenville, S.C., to build a hybrid-electric bus factory there. Greenville offered the company tax breaks and other incentives.

For Thompson, it's a missed opportunity for Charlotte.

"The proven mechanism for drawing established employers to N.C. and to Charlotte can be lethal when dealing with innovators," he said. "It almost seems designed to filter out visionary minds like Dale Hill. If North Carolina sticks to a one-size-fits-all recruitment paradigm - demanding that companies spec-out their requirements before we'll talk to them and ignoring what they're striving to create - then we'll force them into a bidding war and ourselves into a commodity position rather than the unique attractor we could be."

Still, Hill maintains that Charlotte is uniquely qualified to be a pioneering city for a hydrogen-powered mass transit system. He points to the city's proactive transit agency and abundant sources of electricity from McGuire Nuclear Station that can be used to make hydrogen.

"It's got all the key elements," Hill said. "It just takes enough champions that want to make it work."

Calling Copenhagen

From the Queen City to Copenhagen - As world leaders converge on Copenhagen to talk climate solutions, we of the International Hydrail Conference can say only "Don't forget the trains!" We have fond memories of Copenhagen from the Second International Hydrail Conference, including welcome comments provided by the U.S. Ambassador.

"On June 7, Deputy Chief of Mission Sandra Kaiser and staff from the Embassy's Environment, Science and Technology Office participated in the Second International Hydrail (hydrogen railway) Conference...

"I know Ambassador Cain was really looking forward to participating in this conference. For those of you who don't know, North Carolina is Ambassador Cain's home state. So when he heard about this conference being first held in Charlotte and then moving to Denmark, it seemed like a synergy too good to pass up. I can tell you that this event has been on his calendar for months. It was only the intervening invitation of President Bush to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen which required him to travel to Washington today which explains his absence here...."[Full Text]

Final Technical Report on U.S. Dept. of Energy-funded Fuelcell Prototype Locomotive - Final report on international effort to develop a hybrid switcher locomotive powered by fuel cells for use in commercial transportation and mobile electricity generation for the power grid...[Full Report - PDF 5.8MB]

The Nature of Future Transport - In a series covering the future of transportation, Nature reported on technology innovations helping switch trains to greener tracks...[Article - PDF <1MB] [Article - HTML]

Fuel Cell Train Case Study for Indian Railways - A case study prepared for Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering on the potential for fuel cell trains to efffectively meet the needs in one of the world's fastest growing economies...[Full Report - PDF 1.6MB]

Cost, Not a Barrier - The latest on the hydrogen fuel cell train market from Fuel Cell Today's Niche Transport Survey 2009, including benefits and potential cost advantages of hydrail...[Report - PDF 160K] [Fuel Cell Today - HTML]

Fuel Cells Could Power a Streetcar Revival

By: Willie D. Jones (Sept. 2009) Advocates of hydrogen-fuel-cell propulsion have a new target for their technology: trolleys. At the Fifth International Hydrail conference, held 11 and 12 June in Charlotte, N.C., engineers and transit planners concluded that streetcars are an ideal early application for...[More from IEEE Spectrum]

screenshot IEEE Spectrum

Fuel Cell Locomotive Unveiled

The BNSF Railway Co. and Vehicle Projects Inc. unveiled their hydrogen-powered fuel cell locomotive...[More from Topeka Capital-Journal]

Fuel Cell Today coverage

BNSF Railway Co. Press Release

screenshot Topeka Capital Journal

Fifth International Hydrail Conference
11-12 June 2009 | Charlotte, NC, USA

Conference Downloads

A conference featuring the latest developments in renewable energy-powered, carbon-neutral mass transit. Hydrogen-powered transit technology (Hydrail) is an energy-independent and low-cost public transportation option that protects local air quality and facilitates the ease of transition to tomorrow's hydrogen-based economy.

Fourth International Hydrail Conference
9 June 2008 | Valencia, Spain

Presentations now available for download, see the conference web page.