ITM Power and Cheetah Marine to Build Hydrogen Catamaran

ITM Power has done it again. Yesterday I had talked about how they had been given an award for their HFUEL on-demand hydrogen fueling station. Today I want to talk about how ITM Power has teamed up with Cheetah Marine to create a hydrogen-powered catamaran.

The new hydrogen fueled Cheetah catamaran is going to be part of the overall Isle of Wight EcoIsland project. The goal of the EcoIsland project is to turn the Isle of Wight into an area with the lowest carbon footprint in England by 2020. To achieve this goal there is another aim and that is to promote not only green living, but green technology and eco-friendly businesses as well.

So, why target hydrogen boats as a contributing factor in this overall plan? According to the ITM Power press release, “Islands have high fuel prices and difficult fuel logistics. Most island systems utilize significant numbers of marine vehicles constituting an existing global market for outboard engines in the region of 800,000 units pa. Emissions are an important focus for the industry due to restrictive use in the sensitive near-shore environment … ITM Power will work with Cheetah Marine to optimize existing petrol outboard motors to run on hydrogen to reduce emissions and fuel costs and improve fuel security. The resulting vehicle will be taken through the approvals process to be marketed as a product alongside ITM Power’s refueling equipment.”

So there you have it, a good explanation about how islands (including the Hawaiian Islands and Taiwan) pay a very high price for importing fuel, have an overall problem with pollution plus a specific problem with marine pollution and could benefit from alternative energy solutions such as hydrogen created on demand and used as needed. As more islands across the globe convert to hydrogen energy it is only a matter of time before the mainland goes mainstream with H2 as well.