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Just over a year ago, the world’s first commercial hydrogen ferry officially set sail in the San Francisco Bay, offering a clean, quiet rebuttal to the noisy, polluting ferries that many coastal cities depend on.
Now, the vessel’s owner is working to build a bigger, faster version in New York.
Switch Maritime was recently awarded $2 million from New York state to develop a 150-passenger ferry powered by hydrogen fuel cells — a technology that doesn’t directly emit carbon dioxide or toxic air pollution, just a little heat and water vapor. The company says it aims to launch the vessel around early 2028 in New York City waterways as part of a 12-month demonstration period, before potentially transitioning to longer-term service.
“Ferry operators have aging fleets that need to be replaced,” said Pace Ralli, CEO and cofounder of Switch. “We’re trying to give these operators a viable alternative to rebuilding and renewing their fleet with diesel.”
More than 600 ferries ply the country’s waterways. The vast majority of them still burn diesel fuel, leaving smoggy trails of planet-warming gases and health-harming pollutants in their wake.
Some of the nation’s biggest ferry operators — including those in New York City, San Francisco, and Washington state — are starting to test and deploy cleaner marine technologies to meet their climate goals and improve air quality in waterfront communities.
Last month, New York City launched a $33 million hybrid-electric ferry that uses batteries and diesel generators. A handful of other hybrid and fully battery-powered vessels are operating or under construction nationwide, and hundreds more have hit the water in China and Europe.
For now, Switch’s San Francisco ferry is the only fully hydrogen-powered vessel in the U.S.
The boat, called Sea Change, launched in July 2024 after more than six years in development. The 75-passenger ferry includes 360 kilowatts of fuel cells, a 600-kW electric propulsion system, lithium-ion batteries, and 10 tanks that can store a total of 246 kilograms of hydrogen. The vessel uses the most readily available type of hydrogen — the kind produced using fossil gas — which is sourced from existing automotive fueling stations in the San Francisco area.
The New York ferry will be twice the size and operate twice as fast as Sea Change, said Seamus Nolan, Switch’s director of commercial and government affairs. He said the $2 million grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority will help fund the company’s initial work to develop the larger vessel and cover some operational costs during the yearlong demonstration period.
Just as crucial as launching the ferry will be establishing a hydrogen supply chain for this specific project, given that no such networks exist today in the U.S. maritime industry. Nolan said that Switch has identified three potential suppliers of green hydrogen — made from renewable energy sources — that could initially serve the new vessel’s operations, though future supplies could include hydrogen made from nuclear or methane pyrolysis as those production methods scale.
A lack of cheap, clean hydrogen remains one of the biggest barriers to taking fuel-cell ferries mainstream. It’s also a key reason why ferry operators are primarily turning to battery-powered boats to begin greening their fleets. Hydrogen fuel is substantially more expensive to make and transport than diesel fuel, and producers remain reluctant to ramp up supplies — and thus drive down prices — given the uncertainty around customer demand.
This was already true under the Biden administration. Now the second Trump administration is moving to scrap federal policies meant to accelerate production of clean hydrogen, including by potentially canceling awards for four projects under the $7 billion Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program. The budget law passed by congressional Republicans in July also hastens the phaseout of the 45V tax credit for clean hydrogen production.
“If done safely, green hydrogen is a viable alternative fuel for maritime … but there’s a lot of concerns around, how do we scale up green hydrogen production so that it’s affordable for maritime use and that there’s enough supply?” said Teresa Bui, senior climate campaign director at the nonprofit group Pacific Environment.
During the Sea Change trial in San Francisco, the vessel experienced “minor disruptions due to fuel sourcing at times,” though routine maintenance work and occasional mechanical issues were bigger causes of interrupted service, said Thomas Hall, director of operations and customer experience for San Francisco Bay Ferry, which ran the hydrogen ferry during the demonstration period.
From July 2024 to January 2025, Sea Change zipped along a short tourist route between the historic Ferry Building and Fisherman’s Wharf. The temporary pilot service was sponsored by a group of private partners, including Chevron New Energies, United Airlines, and the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway, and Transportation District.
Hall said the ferry operator is evaluating the demonstration’s results, which will help inform its longer-term plans. The Water Emergency Transportation Authority, which oversees San Francisco Bay Ferry, has secured more than $150 million in local, state, and federal funding to deploy zero-emissions vessels. Plans are well underway to build three small battery-electric ferries and two large battery ferries for the service. Hall said that, down the road, hydrogen ferries could potentially operate on routes that cover longer distances or for extended periods of time.
“Being part of a first-in-the-world, groundbreaking project is something we value a lot here in the Bay Area,” Hall said. “It was a huge achievement that will make future implementations easier.”
Since the pilot ended earlier this year, Switch and its vessel operator partner Blue & Gold Fleet have been running tests to see how Sea Change performs on critical commuter routes in the San Francisco Bay Area. The plan is to bring the vessel back into passenger service in the coming months, either in San Francisco or in a new city that is looking to test the technology.
“Sea Change is one proof-of-concept to show that it can be done, that it can be operated commercially,” Nolan said of the hydrogen fuel-cell ferry. The New York demonstration will be Switch’s chance to prove the technology can operate at twice the scale.
One of the nation’s largest hydrogen-powered transit fleets is seeking to switch to a cleaner — and local — fuel source as part of a federally funded clean hydrogen hub.
The Stark Area Regional Transit Authority, or SARTA, provides about 5,000 daily rides to commuters in the Canton, Ohio, area. A decade after federal grants helped it purchase its first hydrogen fuel-cell buses, the authority now has 22 such vehicles, making it the country’s fourth-largest hydrogen-powered transit fleet.
The vehicles emit only water vapor and warm air as exhaust, reducing air pollution in the neighborhoods where they run. But producing and transporting hydrogen for the fuel cells can be a significant source of climate emissions, which is why SARTA is partnering with energy company Enbridge and the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, or ARCH2, on a plan to make the fuel on-site with solar power.
“So it will be green,” said Kirt Conrad, SARTA’s CEO, referring to the use of renewable energy to power the production of hydrogen by splitting water.
Currently, the transit agency imports hydrogen — made from natural gas without carbon capture — by truck from Canada. Such “gray” hydrogen emits about 11 tons of carbon dioxide per ton of hydrogen produced. President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs against Canada could also affect the cost and supply of hydrogen available to SARTA, although specific impacts are still unclear.
SARTA had already worked with Dominion Energy on a compressed natural gas fueling station before Dominion’s Ohio utility company was acquired by Enbridge. When the Biden administration announced its regional clean hydrogen hub program in 2023, SARTA and the company joined others in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania to pitch the ARCH2 hub. The hub was among seven selected by the Department of Energy in late 2023 and was awarded up to $925 million in funding last summer.
The plan is to install roughly 1,000 solar panels on about 10 acres of recently acquired land next to SARTA’s existing hydrogen fueling facility, said Conrad. That would generate up to 1 megawatt of electricity, powering an electrolysis facility that splits water into oxygen and hydrogen. Under the project’s current scope, the equipment would produce roughly 1 ton of hydrogen per day, enough to fuel 40 SARTA buses, Conrad added.
Details could change as the project progresses, according to Enbridge spokesperson Stephanie Moore. Enbridge would own the hydrogen production and storage equipment.
Conrad estimated that the whole project will cost around $15 million, about 70% of which would come from federal funding under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and other grants. It’s unclear, though, whether the Trump administration will renege on those commitments, even those which have already been formally obligated under contract.
“ARCH2 receives funding for this project through a contract issued through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations,” Moore said. “We have received no information outlining any modifications to that contract and therefore will continue moving forward on this project as planned.”
If the project can be completed, it will double SARTA’s supply of hydrogen, lower costs and emissions, and improve the transit system’s resiliency, Conrad said, noting that the agency has experienced occasional fuel delivery problems. Plus, domestic hydrogen production can support U.S. energy independence goals, he said.
A desire to switch to cleaner fuels and the costs per mile compared with diesel buses convinced SARTA to start buying fuel-cell buses in 2014. Today, it has 17 large buses and 5 smaller paratransit vehicles that run on fuel cells, which split hydrogen into protons and electrons and send them along separate paths. The electrons provide an electric current, while the protons wind up combining with oxygen to make water.
California has had fuel-cell buses on the road for more than two decades, and other places that have embraced the vehicles in recent years include Philadelphia’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and Maryland’s Montgomery County.
Sean O’Leary, a senior researcher for the Ohio River Valley Institute, said the planned project by SARTA and Enbridge would cut greenhouse gas emissions compared with current practices.
“Green hydrogen is … a lot better than gray,” O’Leary said. However, he’s skeptical whether fuel-cell buses are the vehicles he would choose today for transit systems to reduce emissions. “I would personally rather see them go to electric buses or even biodiesel, both of which would reduce emissions more and cost a … lot less.”
Conrad said SARTA would have liked to have started out using green hydrogen, but it wasn’t available in the marketplace a decade ago. Now that the technology has advanced, he thinks it’s time to make the switch to a cleaner source of hydrogen.
“Sometimes an industry just needs time to evolve. And I think that’s what we’re starting to see now,” Conrad said.
If all proceeds well, SARTA anticipates on-site hydrogen production could start as soon as 2028.
Three Ohio companies are investing in hydrogen fuel cell passenger vehicles even as the U.S. market for electric vehicles continues to grow. Each has an innovative approach to the chicken-and-egg problem of having fuel available when and where drivers need it.
The Ohio companies’ focus on fuel cell passenger vehicles is unique nationwide, especially for a state that doesn’t yet have any public hydrogen fueling stations. California, where almost all of the country’s hydrogen fuel cell cars are registered, still has fewer than 60 public stations.
“When we see hydrogen transportation deployment projects, it’s really more on the medium- and heavy-duty side,” said Mark Henning, a researcher at Cleveland State University’s Energy Policy Center at the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs.
A hydrogen car is essentially an electric vehicle with an onboard fuel cell providing electricity alongside a battery. General Motors first displayed a prototype for a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle back in the 1960s, but hydrogen cars weren’t available to U.S. consumers until leases for the 2015 Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell began, with sales of the Toyota Mirai starting that fall.
Hydrogen car sales have been essentially limited to California, where state policy and public funding supported the development of some public fueling stations. Since then, only about 18,000 fuel cell cars have been sold in the U.S.
Yet Ohio companies have been working on hydrogen energy for more than two decades. The state trade association, the Ohio Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Coalition, traces its history back to 2003.
If successful, the current efforts could eventually provide another option for switching away from gasoline-powered cars. While electric vehicles are comparable in price, hydrogen cars can be refueled quickly — assuming the infrastructure is available — and offer more consistent range in cold weather. But much could hinge on how quickly hydrogen infrastructure develops, as well as how quickly and effectively plug-in electric vehicle makers deal with their own range and charging challenges.
One example of the desire for hydrogen vehicle alternatives comes from DLZ, an engineering, architectural and project management company headquartered in Columbus with offices across the United States as well as in India and Costa Rica. The company has a fleet of about 250 vehicles across the Midwest, including electric vehicles. In 2022, it added six Hyundai hydrogen fuel cell cars for use by professionals from its Columbus office.
“The hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have a lot more consistent performance in range and durability,” especially in cold weather, said Ram Rajadhyaksha, DLZ’s executive vice president. The range for the cars is sufficient for round trips the office’s professionals make to site locations around the state, he explained at the Ohio Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Coalition symposium in North Canton last month.
Hydrogen fuel cell cars aren’t sold in Ohio yet, so DLZ had its six Hyundai vehicles shipped from California to Columbus. Except for the fuel cells, dealers in Ohio can provide any necessary service the vehicles may need, Rajakhyasksha said.
The cars also need a regular source of hydrogen, so DLZ added its own. Its station in Columbus can generate about 20 kilograms of hydrogen per day, using electricity from a solar array atop a large building on company property. A net metering agreement lets DLZ sell any excess electricity from the array to the grid.
Nonetheless, there were hurdles, including permitting, building codes, supply chain issues during the tail end of the pandemic, and even signage codes.
While California has been the country’s epicenter for fuel cell vehicles, Honda Motors is now producing the first American-made hybrid hydrogen vehicle at its Marysville plant in Ohio. Its 2025 CR-V e:FCEV model can go roughly 270 miles on a tank of hydrogen. There’s also a small electric battery which provides a driving range of about 30 miles. A 110-volt power outlet on the vehicle can run small home appliances or other equipment.
That range is about the same as Honda’s all-electric Prologue SUV, which also has a comparable list price. But the company believes there is room for both.
“It’s not one or the other,” said Dave Perzynski, assistant manager for hydrogen solutions business development at Honda, who also spoke at the Ohio Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Coalition symposium. “It’s using the right equipment at the right place at the right time.” The CR-V’s electric charging range is about right for his daily round-trip commute, he said, while the fuel cell offers flexibility for longer trips.
Honda’s goal is to achieve 100% decarbonization, Perzynski said. However, limits on local electric grids can make that difficult in some places. “If you can electrify it, if it works, then do that,” he said. “And once that stops working, then thank goodness we’ve been investing in hydrogen for the last 20 years, because there are places and times when you run out of power.”
As a practical matter, the Ohio-made cars’ initial market will be California. For other states, Honda is counting on others to build out the fueling infrastructure.
“The only way we can do that is through a coalition,” Perzynski said. “We can’t build infrastructure alone.”
Millennium Reign Energy in Dayton has a membership model to develop hydrogen infrastructure along with the demand for it. Its Emerald H2 network will help customers buy used fuel cell vehicles, while also providing access to hydrogen fueling stations designed and built by the company.
As the number of customers in an area grows, Millennium Reign Energy would swap out the fueling station for one with larger capacity. The smaller station would then go to another location. Access to the stations would be for members only, although members traveling outside their local area could use stations elsewhere.
“Our mission is to build the first transcontinental hydrogen highway,” said CEO Chris McWhinney as he explained the model at the fuel cell program last month. The company’s fueling stations are already operating at places outside the United States, as well as three private facilities in Ohio. The company plans to add its first Emerald H2 network stations in the Dayton area early next year.
The stations use electricity and water to make hydrogen, so using one with a nearby source of solar, wind, hydropower or geothermal energy can provide green energy, versus just moving emissions from tailpipes up to power plants, McWhinney said. That can also bring the cost for the hydrogen fuel down below that of gasoline, he suggested, as renewable electricity continues to get cheaper.
Whether hydrogen-powered passenger vehicles are the best use for renewable energy remains questionable. A study published in Joule last August found battery-electric vehicles were roughly three times more efficient in using renewable electricity than fuel-cell vehicles.
“The battery-electric case is much more efficient than the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle,” said Greg Keoleian, co-director of the University of Michigan’s MI Hydrogen initiative, and one of the co-authors of the Joule study. Ideally, renewable energy will be used efficiently, given the limited amount on the grid now and the urgent need to decarbonize because of climate change, he said.
Battery electric cars also have a much bigger charging network, with nearly 70,000 stations nationwide, Keoleian noted. Cost is also an issue, he added, noting that hydrogen fuel in California currently costs about five times as much as gasoline would to go the same distance.
Henning did note that one of Ohio’s public transit systems, SARTA, the Stark Area Regional Transit Authority, has had hydrogen buses as part of its fleet since 2016. Transit fleets also often need a handful of passenger vehicles, which might be able to use tbuses’ hydrogen fueling station while also qualifying for bulk discounts that may start with the acquisition of five or six vehicles, he said.
The Department of Energy’s recent push for hydrogen hubs might also play an indirect role, suggested Sergey Paltsev, deputy director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy. None of the hub projects so far focus on light-duty vehicles, but infrastructure developed for other purposes could make it easier to develop fueling stations. In that case, the Ohio companies could be angling for a competitive advantage.
Yet much remains unknown about whether the incoming Trump administration will continue incentives begun in the Biden administration, Henning said. The law’s tax credit can apply to fuel cell vehicles with final assembly in North America, which might apply to Honda’s hybrid car — if the Inflation Reduction Act continues.
“I do think there is an appetite and there is a customer base for fuel cell electric vehicles, and I can imagine different use cases where that makes more sense” than an all-electric car, said Grant Goodrich, executive director of the Great Lakes Energy Institute at Case Western Reserve University. Multiple people in Northeast Ohio have expressed reluctance to buy an electric vehicle now, especially given the challenges of harsh winter weather.
Yet the infrastructure for electric vehicles is much farther ahead, and electric vehicle makers continue to work to improve performance. “Will the technology of battery and electric vehicles improve enough to stay ahead of FCEV adoption so that is able to keep that challenge at bay?” Goodrich asked.
Early last month, he would have put money on the EV makers to stay ahead. After hearing the presentations from Honda, Millenium Reign Energy and DLZ, he’s not so sure.
“It’s not a done deal,” Goodrich said, noting that the hydrogen fueling experience also seems to be a more natural replacement for the habits customers have adopted as drivers of vehicles with internal combustion engines. “If it was to roll out faster, I think you could see some competition there.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated to clarify Greg Keoleian’s role.
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