Cuba’s National Hydrogen Group is currently leading pilot testing of vehicles to see if H2 is indeed their fuel of the future. Tania Carbonel Morales, Director of the Center for Studies on Renewable Energy Technologies (CETER) has stated that students are actively participating in this study.
According to the article, “Meanwhile, Iraysa Oviedo Rivero, of Cuba energia Information Management and Energy Development Center, also participating in the Conference, said the negative impact of renewable sources like hydrogen, carbon or biomass is smaller than that caused by the use of fossil fuels.
“Figures provided by CETER indicate that hydrogen has been successfully employed in the transportation of students in the Spanish city of Aragon.”
No matter what you think of the politics of Cuba including the Castro brothers, one thing is for certain and that is that Cuba has its eye on sustainability. In 2006, the World Wildlife Fund (World Wide Fund for Nature) declared that Cuba was the only nation that met its standard for sustainability having a lower ecological footprint per capita than any other nation.
While the U. S. is fumbling and stumbling around when it comes to developing hydrogen infrastructure, now even smaller, hostile nations (to the U. S.) like Cuba and Iran see the wisdom of building hydrogen cars and infrastructure with the goals of developing a sustainable future that is environmentally friendly and free from foreign sources of fossil fuels.