Snoop’s Olympic Groove: Fueling the Games with Gas
The 2024 Paris Olympic Games has seen a greater focus on sustainability than previous Olympics, with a carbon footprint less than half that of the 2016 Rio Olympics. As part of the commitment to sustainability, the Games will be making innovative use of low-carbon fuels including hydrogen.
Toyota has been tapped to supply the official fleet of vehicles that will shuttle Olympians around Paris. Five hundred of these vehicles will be the hydrogen-fueled Toyota Mirai, which Toyota describes as a “‘plug-less’ electric vehicle [where] instead of having to charge a battery in a BEV which can take several hours, the Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) driver simply fills the tank with hydrogen.” This hydrogen is then combined with oxygen to generate electricity that is used to power the vehicle’s electric motor.
Hydrogen fuel cells offer many of the advantages of traditional fuels (it’s faster to fill a tank than it is to charge a battery), as well as an extended range—the Toyota Mirai advertises a range of up to 402 miles per tank. The only byproduct of the hydrogen-oxygen reaction is water vapor. Emissions from the production of the hydrogen used vary – see our piece The Hydrogen Rainbow to learn more about the different types of hydrogen.
In 2024, the Olympic Torch has also changed. Lit in Ancient Olympia several months ago and sailed on a three-masted sailing ship to Marseille, then subsequently carried along its route to Paris by a total of 10,000 people (including Snoop Dogg, who’ll be carrying it near the home stretch – told you we’d work him in somehow) the Torch has a rich history reaching back to antiquity. While modern Olympic Torches have typically burned propane, this latest version (built tougher, to allow a fifth as many torches to be used throughout the relay) burns low-carbon biogas, a symbolic transition showing the importance of sustainability throughout the games.
Organizers have kept the exact details of the Olympic Cauldron quiet, promising to reveal all when the Cauldron is lit on July 26. We’re excited to see what they’ve come up with – if the Torch is anything to go on, it will likely be the cleanest Cauldron yet, a fitting symbol for an Olympics seeking to break new ground on sustainability