SAN RAMON — Even a facility that represents the cutting edge of clean transportation technology doesn’t get an easy pass from California regulators.

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Hydrogen fuel cell cars will cruise through Livermore Stringent permitting requirements, plus some unforeseen physical issues involving power connections, delayed the opening of the Linde hydrogen cell fueling station by about six months. But proponents of this unassuming-looking facility on Norris Canyon Road just east of Interstate 680 — and of the greater cause of reduced dependence on fossil fuels — say it will be around for the long haul.

“We started developing this technology 20 years ago; at the same time we started work on the Prius” electric hybrid car, said Dawn Mercer, a national advanced-technology manager for Toyota Motors North America, a partner company behind the hydrogen cell fueling station. It is the Bay Area’s sixth station and California’s 29th. “This will only develop and expand.”

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Mercer was one of perhaps 75 car and energy company officials and local and regional elected officials on hand Tuesday morning for a grand opening ceremony. They hailed the station as a key to encouraging a technology that has been hampered, in part, by a lack of fueling stations.

The market for fuel cell electric vehicles powered with hydrogen is new and still small. There are about 2,100 Toyota Mirais on the road in California; the Honda Clarity and Hyundai ix35 are also on the market.

San Ramon City Manager Joe Gorton drives a hydrogen-cell Toyota on city business, and says he has been impressed. “The key to this ultimately will be putting enough fueling stations around the nation,” Gorton said.

The San Ramon station will be operated by the Linde Group and its Linde Hydrogen Concepts. The Linde Group, Toyota and the Bishop Ranch business park received a California Energy Commission development grant in 2015 to help establish the station, the first of its kind in Contra Costa. (A station in Walnut Creek, to be operated by an affiliate of Shell Oil, is in the early stages of development).

Whereas burning fossil fuels produce carbon dioxide and particulate, a hydrogen cell-fueled vehicle produces only water vapor as exhaust. Hydrogen-powered vehicles also have a significantly higher range, 300 miles and more, than do all-electric vehicles, at least for now, and can recharge in minutes, not hours.

Critics contend it costs energy — for hydrogen fuel cells, usually natural gas — to put hydrogen into a useable form for vehicles. But Matt McClory, a fuel cell development manager with Toyota, said making gasoline also costs energy, and that hydrogen has a better “well-to-wheel efficiency” in that process than does gasoline.

“We need multiple technologies for the future,” McClory said, stressing that hydrogen-cell technology can co-exist with improving electric and hybrid vehicles. “It’s not a zero-sum game, not a competition.”

Chris Weeks sees another upside. While he hopes hydrogen will soon power shuttle buses to and from the Bishop Ranch business park, Weeks said hydrogen fuel may well help lure some tech workers to San Ramon. The Toyota regional office is a stone’s throw away from the fuel station.

“People often choose their companies based on cool stuff,” said Weeks, Bishop Ranch’s transportation manager. “Plus for people who live here, it’s good for air quality.”

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Tadashi Ogitsu said the station will improve his driving experience. No longer will this Dublin resident have to drive to Hayward to refuel his Honda Clarity for trips east.

“Making it to Yosemite (National) Park will be way easier now,” said Ogitsu, a scientist who said he cuts it close on that trip using one tank of hydrogen. “There aren’t any hydrogen stations between Dublin and Yosemite … not yet, at least.”