Hydrogen: Hope or hype for South Carolina?

MAR 03, 2009

Physics Today

The State : State and local taxpayers have paid $40.7 million in the past five years to establish a USC research base in hydrogen fuel cells and create a cottage industry for Columbia and the Midlands.

For that investment, the region has attracted $23.4 million in outside research grants and applied for $35.8 million more. The investment has also generated about 100 jobs and created partnerships with dozens of private fuel cell companies or industries working with the technology.

And later this month, the National Hydrogen Association will bring more than 1,000 researchers, manufacurers and government officials to Columbia for its annual conference and expo.

Boosters say that’s not bad for being in only the fourth year of a 20-year plan to turn the Columbia area into a national center of hydrogen research, part of a statewide push to make hydrogen pay.

But critics, including S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, say that too much money has been spent on a technology that might not be the wave of the future.