Hydrogen Development News from Around the World

Hydrogen Economy

Since I tend to be U. S. centric and especially California centric when I talk about hydrogen cars, vehicles and the upcoming hydrogen economy I thought it would be fun, to take a break from this and point out many different hydrogen developments from around the globe.

For instance, in Germany, owners of Westfalia’s “James Cook” model of mobile home (or motor home to you and me) can have their vehicle equipped with an EFOY hydrogen fuel cell. This is especially useful for travelors who like to get far from the grid and still have power for their onboard lights and other power generation needs.

In China, for the World Expo 2010, the Shanghai Fuel Cell Vehicle Program is proposing rolling out a new line of fuel cell vehicles. In fact according to Fuelcellworks, “It is reported that the World Expo 2010, the 20 fuel cell buses, 300 fuel cell car, electric vehicles, as well as 1000 a number of fuel cell cars and postal cars venues will be put into operation, then, Shanghai will build a five hydrogen refueling station for these vehicles to meet the demand for hydrogen fuel.”

Japan has taken another step towards introducing fuel cells and hydrogen stations into their country. Fuel cell powered airport limousine buses will be used to shuttle passengers among Tokyo, Haneda and Narita airports.

India has decided to run a small fleet of H2/CNG blend vehicles to transport athletes from their villages to the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Much of the vehicles are now running on CNG-only in the city, so adding 20-percent hydrogen to the blend will make these clean cars even cleaner with slight or no modifications needed.

And, as I’ve already talked about South Korea has unveiled their Master Plan to develop a hydrogen vehicle and refueling system from a landfill. On two islands north and west of Seoul this experiment will include at least one Hyundai fuel cell vehicle.

So, you see, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are not U. S. centric at all. This is a global phenomenon with many countries valuing the potential hydrogen has for reducing greenhouse gases and leading each country towards energy independence.