A discussion with a relative who owns a small trucking company about this Nikola Motors (hopefully Nikola Tesla doesn't have a middle name for yet another company to exploit) hydrogen cell Big Rig that claims to have a 1200 mile range, led me to research the current tech in Hydrogen, which led me to the Toyota Marai (PDF)
Hopefully, I get some help here understanding the economics of using hydrogen as a fuel source. For the moment lets ignore the lack of hydrogen fuel refilling facilities. The Mirai gets about 311 miles to a "tank" of Hydrogen. It has a battery, a Hydrogen storage tank(s), an electric drive motor, and some mechanism to combine the stored hydrogen + airborne oxygen across a catalyst (The "Cell"? As in Hydrogen Cell technology?) to create electricity with a by product of water. The details I have found are not written in human language, but it seems hydrogen is denominated in kilograms (like gas is denominated in gallons). The vehicle can store about 5 kg of hydrogen, so 62 miles per kg of hydrogen.
My quest was to figure out how much electricity it takes to generate 1 kg of hydrogen using available methods. Piecing together varous sources, It takes about 45 kWh of electrical energy to convert 9 kg of water into 1 kg of H2 and 8 kg of O2 by means of commercially available electrolyzers. (Also of note, the wastewater from this process seems to be hazardous, but ignore that to for now.)
The price per kg at one of the rare hydrogen fillin' stations can be as low as $10/kg. Thus $50 for a fill up. Also of note is that a Hydrogen fill up is actually faster - time wise - than filling up with gasoline, and exponentially faster than waiting for a full charge.
But I wanted to see if I could economically and conveniently generate hydrogen at home, using Solar panels as a source of electricity. Exclude again, the current cost of a Hydrogen Generator that can make hydrogen faster than I could consume it under typical driving patterns is about $35,000.
My thinking is that 225kWh will produce 5kg of Hydrogen. And I would need a 3.5Kw dedicated Solar panel system to make one fill up's worth of Hydrogen (311 miles). Driving an average of 1200 miles/Month, I would need 3.85 fill ups or 19.25 kg/Month of generated Hydrogen. So 3.85 x 3.5 (Kw Solar panel system) = a dedicated 13.475Kw Solar panel system. (Which BTW is impossible for a homeowner in my State, as any system larger than 12Kw is considered a commercial system and not allowed on residential rooftops)
Ok. There's a ROI there... a loooong one, but an ROI.
With all that said, (and please correct any of may math);
A.) How does the Marai compare with the energy consumption of a Bolt per mile (or whatever metric)?
B.) Wouldn't a single Hydrogen Fillin' station need literally hundreds of acres of Solar panels, or multiple gigantic Wind Turbines, to produce 100% clean Hydrogen? Enough to fill up hundreds of Hydrogen cars per day?
C.) Is the only way a commercial company can sell Hydrogen at $10/kg is to use fossil fuel to generate it and fossil fuel to ship it, in order to make a reasonable profit today?
D.) At 62 miles of range per hydrogen kg for the Marai, is this a raw rate of 1.38 Kw per mile?
E.) ..and why did Toyota, one of the early trailblazers in battery powered EV's, decide to cast their lot with Hydrogen?
I thank you in advance for any insight into this.

Hopefully, I get some help here understanding the economics of using hydrogen as a fuel source. For the moment lets ignore the lack of hydrogen fuel refilling facilities. The Mirai gets about 311 miles to a "tank" of Hydrogen. It has a battery, a Hydrogen storage tank(s), an electric drive motor, and some mechanism to combine the stored hydrogen + airborne oxygen across a catalyst (The "Cell"? As in Hydrogen Cell technology?) to create electricity with a by product of water. The details I have found are not written in human language, but it seems hydrogen is denominated in kilograms (like gas is denominated in gallons). The vehicle can store about 5 kg of hydrogen, so 62 miles per kg of hydrogen.
My quest was to figure out how much electricity it takes to generate 1 kg of hydrogen using available methods. Piecing together varous sources, It takes about 45 kWh of electrical energy to convert 9 kg of water into 1 kg of H2 and 8 kg of O2 by means of commercially available electrolyzers. (Also of note, the wastewater from this process seems to be hazardous, but ignore that to for now.)
The price per kg at one of the rare hydrogen fillin' stations can be as low as $10/kg. Thus $50 for a fill up. Also of note is that a Hydrogen fill up is actually faster - time wise - than filling up with gasoline, and exponentially faster than waiting for a full charge.
But I wanted to see if I could economically and conveniently generate hydrogen at home, using Solar panels as a source of electricity. Exclude again, the current cost of a Hydrogen Generator that can make hydrogen faster than I could consume it under typical driving patterns is about $35,000.
My thinking is that 225kWh will produce 5kg of Hydrogen. And I would need a 3.5Kw dedicated Solar panel system to make one fill up's worth of Hydrogen (311 miles). Driving an average of 1200 miles/Month, I would need 3.85 fill ups or 19.25 kg/Month of generated Hydrogen. So 3.85 x 3.5 (Kw Solar panel system) = a dedicated 13.475Kw Solar panel system. (Which BTW is impossible for a homeowner in my State, as any system larger than 12Kw is considered a commercial system and not allowed on residential rooftops)
Ok. There's a ROI there... a loooong one, but an ROI.
With all that said, (and please correct any of may math);
A.) How does the Marai compare with the energy consumption of a Bolt per mile (or whatever metric)?
B.) Wouldn't a single Hydrogen Fillin' station need literally hundreds of acres of Solar panels, or multiple gigantic Wind Turbines, to produce 100% clean Hydrogen? Enough to fill up hundreds of Hydrogen cars per day?
C.) Is the only way a commercial company can sell Hydrogen at $10/kg is to use fossil fuel to generate it and fossil fuel to ship it, in order to make a reasonable profit today?
D.) At 62 miles of range per hydrogen kg for the Marai, is this a raw rate of 1.38 Kw per mile?
E.) ..and why did Toyota, one of the early trailblazers in battery powered EV's, decide to cast their lot with Hydrogen?
I thank you in advance for any insight into this.