I saw some at a Walmart DC in Ohio.. Walmart can and does push whole industries. I think I saw an article about Walmart now using them entirly in a DC somewhere.

I believe that fuel cells WILL be here to stay, and will eventually dominate the market. The advantages outweigh the disadvantages, though currently the costs are limiting fuel cell use.
As stated above give the industry a few years and I believe that fuel cells will be the norm.

Well...that's what I mean but didn't fully illuminate. Without the subsidies its a losing game...

We are all taxpayers here...do we want to continue to support technology that is not self-sustaining? Just becasue we get water out of the tailpipe? I don't!

But to answer your questions (with what I know first hand)

The storage or generation infrastructure is costly ($1.5 million plus)

Permitting is required = $$$

2 X yearly maintenance on the PEM (proton exchange membrane) and related parts. This will take some 30 hours per fuel cell.

Most of these fuel cells charge internal batteries for high demand requirements...don't remember a battery lasting more that 5-6 years, especially not a AGM or Gel Battery, ESPECIALLY in a heavy discharge application (reach truck) so there are more costs...

The only fuel cells I know about in CA are up in the North, a grocery distributor is using some Methane powered cell on the pallet jack fleet. But come on, can you honestly say that could be cheaper than a good 1 phase HF charger and a lead acid battery? Plus the Methane generates a lot of CO2.

I know of installations in Texas mostly (Sysco Foods, HEB grocery (which is failing, allegedly), and that is due to the funding.

Anyway, thanks for the info and discussion chublil! I hope I don't sound too argumentative!

Arminius, how are these things expensive to maintain? Yes they are expensive, but the subsidies provided are huge. 30% of the cost of installing is covered, 30% in fuel subsidies up to 2016, plus there are rebates for decreased KW usage for the sites. Hydrogen is the most prevalent gas on earth, yes it requires energy to produce, but the byproduct of the fuel cell is pure clean water, not CO-2. The guys I talked to have had them on site since the beginning of 08, and have not had one issue internal to the fuel cell. They did say however that if the filling station looses power, there is a re-boot process that is time consuming. Do you know of any sites in SoCal using this stuff? I was told most of the installs on these things are back east.

I ran across the info on the only vendor supplying this alternative power supply. Contacted some in-house maint: guys at two of the companies who have implemented this stuff, and I gotta tell you, they sounded pretty positive about the technology. Twice the lifetime of a lead acid battery, 9 to 10 hours run time on the pallet jacks (class 3), no low voltage drop, no heat damage associated with the drop, huge incentives from both federal and state govt's. I believe this technology is about 5 to 7 years ahead of its time though, and wont really take off as the company hopes. But once again, I talked to actual mechanics at these sites and they bragged about the things.

In the movie Batman when they blown up the pipes with all the steam in rained straight afterwards for two
hours because of all the steam going into the atmosphere. So no not really because the problems they will cause are much bigger than what they might solve. Its just car companies and governments who have got it wrong.
They would be better with LPG or methanol like Brazil. Electric cars are also a waist of time ,how many people run out of petrol each day around the world, its easy just to fill a can but if you run out of charge how do youn recharge the car

NOPE...don't think it will take off.

Lead-Acid Batteries have been tried, tested & true for a VERY VERY LONG TIME.