hydrogen fuel

Alaska Airlines ceremonially handed over a surplus turboprop airliner on Monday to a company that aims to turn it into the largest hydrogen-powered plane yet to fly.

The largest aircraft yet to fly on hydrogen-electric power made a successful first flight in Moses Lake, Washington, on Thursday. The maiden flight of a converted turboprop airliner offered a preview of one possible pathway for how to make your future flights more eco-friendly. Hydrogen fuel is one of several options the aviation industry is testing to reduce its carbon footprint, but the technology still attracts notable skepticism.

The site of the last coal-fired power plant in Washington state will soon be home to proving grounds for a carbon-emissions free mining truck. The truck is a battery and hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicle, developed by Seattle-based First Mode, and it's the largest emissions free vehicle in the world. Chris Voorhees, co-founder and chief product and technology officer at First Mode, said they’ve developed the technology to focus on decarbonizing the industry that provides the products that fuel our daily lives. Unlike other cleantech engineering focused on the consumer-end products like electric vehicles and solar panels, Voorhees said First Mode is looking at the opposite end of the supply chain.

More folks from Northwest government and industry are jumping on the hydrogen bandwagon to test if the alternative fuel could be a viable and green replacement for diesel and gasoline in some situations. The potential converts include more than half a dozen transit agencies from Everett to Eugene, state legislators and Boeing's drone subsidiary in the Columbia River Gorge.

A public utility in north-central Washington broke ground Monday for a hydrogen production facility. It's one of several related actions in the Northwest that reflect renewed interest in hydrogen as a clean alternative fuel.

Trevor Milton's startup Nikola is working on hydrogen-powered big rigs. Milton has been accused of making misleading claims about the company's technology, which he has denied.

In their last minute dash to adjournment Sunday, Washington state legislators revived a lapsed sales tax break for buyers of electric cars. The resurrected incentive will be similar in value to a publicly-funded rebate for battery-powered cars that Oregon now offers.A valuable tax break for buyers of fully-electric and plug-in hybrid cars in Washington expired last May.

Today, automakers Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and Mercedes make hydrogen fuel cell electric cars in very limited numbers. None of their Pacific Northwest dealers currently stock or sell those models to local drivers. Nevertheless, Toyota is laying the groundwork to bring its hydrogen-powered vehicles to the Northwest.

The Douglas County Public Utility District operates Wells Dam on the Columbia River north of Wenatchee. The dam generates a lot of surplus electricity, especially during spring runoff. Quite a few years ago, utility managers hit on the idea of using surplus electricity to split water molecules to make hydrogen.