CNG and LNG are becoming more and more common in trucks and a lot of other things, and it makes much more sense to me than anything electric. The cost of natural gas is usually cheaper per mile than an equivalent sized electric motor and the amount of electricity it needs to charge. At the same time it's not stressing out our overloaded grid and burns cleanly using engines that already exist. We don't need those silly rechargeable semis, and we don't need hydrogen power either. Gas comes out of the ground, ready to burn!
Depending on where you are at, and especially at the commercial level, CNG can be much less than $1/gallon equivalent. I have some commercial property in NC, and if I used a bunch of natural gas at the commercial rate, the cost would be about $0.54/gallon equivalent. You can't buy electricity for double that!
The only big problem is the compressor needed. To get a good one you're looking at $10,000 or more. Home versions are cheaper, but they don't tend to last very long. Not a huge investment for a company with a big fleet though, huge savings to be had.
Originally Posted By: ctechbob
Even some new big cruise ships are being built as CNG.
Actually, that would have to be LNG, there is no way they could store enough compressed CNG to power a cruise ship. UPS is starting to use a bunch of LNG semis for the increased range when running a standard route from hub to hub, it's easy for them to refill at the hub with their own LNG system. You can store much more natural gas as a liquid than you can compressed at a few thousand PSI - BUT it's hard to make into liquid and must be kept cold.