Hydrogen cars are becoming closer to reality

The car will cost $57,600 and Toyota plans to sell only 700 of them over the next couple of years. They won't be all that cheap to operate and you'll be lucky to find a fuel station -- there are only a couple dozen of them in the world.

Still, after years of talk, it was exciting to hear that the first production hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is going on the market.

Fuel cells were invented in 1838, but most of us first learned about them in the 1960s, when NASA began using them to power space probes and capsules by converting hydrogen energy into electricity.

Most hydrogen today comes from natural gas, but it can be produced through more environmentally friendly sources such as wind or solar power.

Once the fuel is used to create electricity, only water, heat and perhaps a little nitrogen dioxide is produced.

Toyota's offering, the Mirai ("Future," in Japanese) has two quick-filling pressure tanks holding enough hydrogen to propel it for 300 miles of American-type driving.

The Japanese government is subsidizing sale of the car by about a third, bringing the cost down to about $40,000 -- not that far from the cost of a conventional or hybrid car.

Many other companies are working on fuel cell cars, but it will probably be quite a while before most of us are looking for a hydrogen station.

By the time we do, however, it's likely the cost of both the car and the fuel to make it run will be closer to that of conventional technology.

That still leaves the infrastructure problem to be answered, but there's no reason we couldn't see solar- or wind-powered hydrogen fuel stations scattered along our highways the way truck stops and gas stations are today.

Southwest Nebraska has a major stake in the hydrocarbon fuel industry, but there's no reason we can't also be a leader in producing a new fuel like hydrogen in the same way we responded to the market for ethanol.

The new technology also will require qualified repair technicians, and our community college system is certainly capable of providing the training those technicians will need to keep our new fuel cell cars on the road.

One possible bump in the road is finding a source to replace taxes from declining gasoline and diesel sales now used to repair and maintain our highways.

We're sure the politicians in Lincoln and Washington will find a way, however.