 |
"The idea is to link
B.C. and California."
Allan Rock
Canada's Minister of Industry
Industry Minister Allan Rock Intrigued
by Hydrogen Highway Plan
Dennis Bueckert Canadian News
October 9, 2003
Indstry Minister Allan Rock and newly elected California
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger share visions of cruising a West Coast hydrogen highway. Rock
said Thursday that he is interested in proposals for a Canada-U.S. highway equipped with
hydrogen filling stations to fuel a coming fleet of zero-emissions vehicles.
Schwarzenegger, who recently converted his Humvee to run on hydrogen, promised during his
campaign that he would promote a hydrogen highway if elected. |
-
Allan Rock and Herb Dhaliwal
announce a $215 million investment to extend Canadian Leadership in the Emerging Hydrogen
Economy
Canada Newswire
October 9, 2003
The investment is directed by three strategic priorities: early adoption of hydrogen
technologies through integrated demonstration projects undertaken by partnerships that
will showcase a working model of the hydrogen economy in real-world settings; improved
performance and reduced costs of hydrogen technologies, and extension of Canadian
leadership through research and development of innovative new applications in strategic
areas of the hydrogen value chain; and initiatives to establish a hydrogen infrastructure
through Sustainable Development Technology Canada, building on the foundation's success in
establishing successful, partnership projects.
-
Canada Warms to Alternative
Energy Companies
Rachelle Younglai
Reuters October 19, 2003
|
 |
Government of Australia
Releases a Carefully Crafted Study on the Steps to Creating an Australian
Hydrogen Economy |
“Our conventional fuel reserves are finite
and moving towards a hydrogen-powered future could take at least 20 years.
This is a beginning.”
The Hon Ian Macfarlane MP
Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources
Release of
National Hydrogen Study
The report’s main recommendations are:
• adoption of a national vision for hydrogen;
• a review of regulations that may present barriers to hydrogen development;
• greater involvement in international research and industrial collaboration
programs; and
• formation of an Australian Hydrogen Group to help researchers, industry and
Government move the hydrogen agenda forward.
The Australian Government has invested $1 million to examine a
potential hydrogen future for Australia and will participate in next month’s
inaugural meeting of the International Partnership on the Hydrogen Economy hosted by the
US Government in Washington.
|
 National Hydrogen
Study
A report prepared by ACIL Tasman and Parsons Brinckerhoff
for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources
Government of Australia October 2003 |
"Our electricity grid is very
old. It's antiquated. We don't want to panic anybody, but we are concerned in the upper
Midwest, in California, in the Southwest and parts of the Northeast. These are areas that
are especially vulnerable because of inadequate transmission, inadequate capacity, and
we're worried...."
Bill Richardson, U.S. Secretary of Energy
1998-2001
May 26, 2000 Dow
Jones
Drunk on Power
Governor Bill Richardson
New York Times August
16, 2003
Former U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, now Governor of New
Mexico, to re-open New Mexico Trade Office in Jerusalem for the
transition of Israel from fossil fuel to renewable / sustainable energy using hydrogen as
the energy carrier. more
"We recognize important
similarities between Israel and New Mexico. Both states are technology driven; the
structure and size of the high-tech industries are very similar as are research and
production in the area of life sciences and the laser / optic industries. I believe that
our trade office in Jerusalem could serve as an excellent conduit in the future
development of renewable and sustainable energy in Israel and New Mexico." |
Abraham Announces Canada to
Join International Partnership for a Hydrogen Economy
U.S. Newswire October
16, 2003 |
| Joint Statement by the United States Department of Energy and the
Department of Natural Resources Canada: We affirm our
commitment, on behalf of the United States and Canada, to collaborate on accelerating the
development of the hydrogen economy as part of our broadening cooperation on energy. We
aim to enhance the security of energy supply, increase diversity of energy sources, and
improve local and global environmental quality. Our cooperation will contribute to laying
the scientific, technical, legal, and regulatory framework needed to accelerate the
commercial penetration and trade of emissions-free hydrogen technology worldwide, in cars,
buildings, portable applications and power generation, to secure to our citizens the
abundant, secure, and clean energy required to sustain growth, ensure security, and
protect the environment.
In this context, we see the potential of the hydrogen economy in
establishing a secure energy supply through clean and environmentally sound systems for
production, storage and use of hydrogen. We will seek to build on our ongoing
collaboration and complementarities in our research efforts and actively explore and
understand technology options, including renewable energy sources, for boosting the
development of hydrogen energy.
We agree to:
-- further the goals of future energy security as well as sustainable development which
carefully balances sustained economic growth, preserves the environment, and achieves
related social benefits;
-- strengthen joint cooperation to work for universally compatible codes, standards,
and regulations;
-- strengthen joint cooperation on research, development and demonstration; and
-- work together to foster public-private collaboration.
These joint efforts will assist us to make the most of our domestic
investments; bring to bear the expertise of the public and private sector to solve the
complex challenges surrounding the hydrogen economy; establish sound, universally
compatible codes, standards, and regulations for hydrogen fuel storage and utilization.
They will provide a strong and broad foundation for bilateral and multilateral
cooperation, such as under the proposed International Partnership for the Hydrogen
Economy, the International Energy Agency and the Memorandum of Understanding between the
Department of Energy and Natural Resources Canada for collaboration on Energy Research and
Development. |
CHALLENGE & OPPORTUNITY
CHARTING A NEW ENERGY FUTURE
Energy Future Coalition Full Report
June 2003
"Hydrogen can be
produced using renewable, fossil, and nuclear energy. We are looking at all of these
options. But we intend that all our hydrogen will eventually be produced using
emissions-free technologies. In our most recent budget, we propose spending roughly 50
percent on hydrogen production from renewable resources.We believe our work on hydrogen
and the work being done elsewhere around the world is perhaps the most significant
game-changing endeavor the energy sector will see in our lifetimes."
U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham
Secretary of Energy Abraham
Delivers Keynote Address to European Union Conference on Hydrogen
US Department of Energy/US Newswire June 16, 2003
Remarks
by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham
European Union Conference on Hydrogen
Brussels, Belgium June
16, 2003
The Energy Vector of the Future
Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission
Conference on the Hydrogen Economy
Brussels June 16, 2003
The Aims of the Conference - European Union
EU
Unveils Vision for the Energy Source of the 21st century: Hydrogen and Fuel Cell
Technology - European Union
Fuel
Cells Agreement: EU and US Forge Links to Provide Sustainable Energy Sources for the
Future - European Union
EU Group Pours Cold
Water on Prodi's Hydrogen Dream
Tom Miles Planet Ark June
16, 2003
EU
Denies Climbdown on Prodi's Hydrogen Pledge
Reuters June 13, 2003
Greenpeace and Others
Warn Against Commission Initiative Missing Potential Benefits - Climate
Action Network Europe
Framework for the International Partnership for the Hydrogen
Economy - Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, International Energy
Agency Ministerial Meeting, Paris, France April
28, 2003
The Hydrogen Energy Economy
Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality
May 20, 2003 10:00 AM 2123 Rayburn House Office
Building
Prepared Witness Testimony: The House Committee on Energy and Commerce
W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, Chairman
The
Honorable David Garman
Assistant Secretary Energy, Efficiency, and Renewable Energy
U.S. Department of Energy
Ms. Catherine
Rips, Director of Hydrogen Programs
 Sunline Transit
Dr. Scott
Samuelsen, [ National Fuel Cell Research
Center]
University of California at Irvine
Mechanical, Aerospace, and Environmental Engineering
Mr. Byron
McCormick, Executive Director, Fuel Cell Activities
General Motors Research & Development
Dr. Francis R.
Preli Jr., Vice President Engineering
UTC Fuel Cells
Mr. Greg
M. Vesey, President
Technology Ventures
ChevronTexaco Corporation
Dr.
Johannes Schwank
Department of Chemical Engineering
University of Michigan
|
International Energy Agency Ministerial Meeting
U.S.
Fosters International
Hydrogen Partnership
Environmental News Service April
28, 2003 |
"Partnerships that leverage
scarce resources, develop technology standards, and foster private-public technology and
infrastructure collaboration can more easily overcome the technological and institutional
barriers that inhibit the development of a cost-competitive, standardized, widely
accessible and safe hydrogen economy."
Spencer Abraham, U.S. Secretary of Energy
U.S. Energy Secretary
Spencer Abraham today called for international collaboration in advanced research and
development to support the deployment of hydrogen energy technologies for hydrogen fuel
cell vehicles. During his presentation to the International Energy Agency (IEA)
Ministerial meeting, Abraham said he envisions an International Partnership for the
Hydrogen Economy such that "a participating country's consumers will have the
practical option of purchasing a competitively priced hydrogen power vehicle, and be able
to refuel it near their homes and places of work by 2020."
The international partnership would establish cooperative and
collaborative efforts in hydrogen production, storage, transport, and end use
technologies; common codes and standards for hydrogen fuel utilization; and the sharing of
information necessary to develop hydrogen fueling infrastructure.
...The world oil market is stretched nearly to capacity, Abraham and IEA Executive
Director Claude Mandil agreed during their meeting in Brussels March 7.
more
|
Japan's vision of renewable hydrogen replacing a natural gas
infrastructure.
(Click image for more info)
BACK TO
THE DARK AGES
FOR GREAT BRITAIN?
Planners Put a Stopper on
BP's Eco-friendly Gas
Pump
Carl Mortished
The Times (UK)
July 18, 2003
“We have thousands of
petrol stations selling LPG gas. [Hydrogen] isn’t that
different.”
--- a BP Spokesman |
READ THE DRAMATIC HYDROGEN SAFETY STUDY
Hydrogen vs. Gasoline Vehicle Fires: Fuel Leak Simulation
Proceedings of the 2001 DOE Hydrogen Program Review
Dr. Michael R. Swain University of
Miami
London is to Take Part in an Environmental
Pilot Scheme
Which Will Use Emission-free [Hydrogen] Buses
BBC July 21, 2003
...only one fuel cell is in everyday
operation in the UK, providing power at a swimming pool in Woking built by a US company.
Fuel Cell Brain Drain: UK Losing Race
for Fuel of the Future
James Reynolds The Scotsman (Scotland) June 13, 2003 |
Carbon Capture Technologies Critical, Dobriansky Says
Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State for
Global Affairs
Address to the 2nd Annual Conference on Carbon Sequestration
Washington File May 7, 2003
"The minor funding that is being offered today for enhancing
the fuel-cell and hydrogen opportunities in Canada are almost insignificant to what is
really needed. When you compare that to the cost to society of maintaining welfare roles
when today's children are unable to work because they have no lung power, we'll realize
what a bargain we passed up a few years back."
 Dr. Geoffrey Ballard
co-founder of Ballard Power Systems
Gov't Passing Up
Bargain Says Fuel Cell's Godfather
Jim Jamieson The
Province/Canada.com June
10, 2003
SEE ALSO HYDROGEN AND HEALTH
|
Union of Concerned Scientists: California
Ranked Far Ahead
of All Other States in New and Existing Renewable Energy
Plugging In
Renewable Energy: Grading the States FULL REPORT
"It
is hoped, in the long term, the wind turbines and use of hydrogen will almost eliminate
the need to transport diesel to this remote and pristine location."
Australian Environment Minister David Kemp
Australian Antarctic Base
to be Hydrogen Powered
MSN Nine May 22, 2003
Australia claims as territory nearly six
million of Antarctica's 13.5 million square kilometres, a patch roughly the size of
Australia without Queensland, and the largest Antarctic claim of any nation.
Australian Antarctic Division
Hydrogen Energy Systems in Antarctica (H2ESA) program
|
| NORWAY NORSK HYDRO ISLAND OF UTSIRA |
 |
Norsk
Hydro to Create Hydrogen Society on
the
Island of Utsira
Norsk Hydro May 9, 2003
Could hydrogen combined with wind power
prove the best energy solution for remote communities? Hydro is involved in a pioneer
project on the windswept island of Utsira on the Norwegian coast near Haugesund. This is a
demonstration project showing how wind power and hydrogen can provide all the energy
needed in a community, making it fully independent of fossil fuels. This is
the first full scale project of its kind in the world and is a barrier-breaking milestone
in the development of green energy systems. |
Key information on
the Utsira project: (click for more)
| Main components |
Technical parameters |
| Wind turbine, 2 |
600 kW |
| Flywheel |
5 kWh |
| Synchronous motor (MSM) |
200 kVA |
| Hydrogen engine and fuel cell |
60 kW (top load) |
| Electrolyser |
10 Nm3/h, 50 kW |
| Compressor |
3 kW |
| Hydrogen store in pressure tank |
2000 Nm3 |
|
| HAWAII |
EDITORIAL
Iceland Has
Lesson for Sunny Hawai'i
Honolulu Advertiser April
27, 2003
One of the key issues facing all involved in
the hydrogen revolution is that it takes power to make power. Simply burning large amounts
of fossil fuel to make hydrogen fuel makes little sense.
Hawai'i, which has several projects under way already aimed at developing
hydrogen power, should be watching the Iceland experiment closely.
The Islands also have abundant sources, or at least potential sources, of
renewable energy that could be used to produce hydrogen fuel. These include wind power,
solar, ocean-thermal and, of course, geothermal.
Rather than wait for someone else to develop, prove and commercialize this
technology, Hawai'i should join its chilly friends to the north and be leaders in the
hydrogen revolution.
|
 Oct 2000 CHBC Meeting
Visionary Chairwoman of Hawaiian House Energy & Environmental
Protection Calls for Hydrogen Economy
Mina Morita
Hydrogen for Hawaii
Quicktime by VIMS Get Quicktime |
 |
--- HAWAII FUEL CELL TEST FACILITY OPENS! ---
Isle Fuel Cell Facility Hopes to
Fire Up Clean Energy
Diana Leone Honolulu Star-Bulletin
April 25, 2003
The Hawaii Fuel Cell Test Facility opened for business
yesterday in Kakaako, with its partners predicting it can help make Hawaii a world leader
in hydrogen power. The venture will have up to 20 scientists, coordinated by the
University of Hawaii at Manoa's Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, studying
ways to make fuel cell technology more commercially practical. ...U.S. Sens.
Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka, who were present at a dedication ceremony at the facility
yesterday, were credited with obtaining more than $4 million in federal financing to
jump-start the project.
|
HYDROGEN HAWAII VIDEO
RELEASED ON DVD
|
ICELAND: First
Shell-branded Hydrogen Station Opened
Shell Hydrogen April
24, 2003
Shell Hydrogen, a global business of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of
Companies, today opened the first Shell-branded hydrogen station at a Shell retail site
anywhere in the world, at Reykjavik, Iceland. ...The station will be used to refuel
three DaimlerChrysler fuel cell buses that will be run on Reykjavik's streets on a
commercial basis by Straeto bs, the local bus company. ...The Reykjavik hydrogen station
incorporates the machinery, supplied by Norsk Hydro, to produce hydrogen from water by
electrolysis. All of Iceland's electricity is generated from hydroelectric and geothermal
sources.
"We can basically say that
the first ten years, meaning from the year 2000 until roughly 2008, 2012 will be a kind of
demonstration period. Hopefully after a positive experience from this demonstration stage,
we hope to see serial production of vehicles, ship engines and other technologies in the
hydrogen sector, and this will go on until maybe 2015, 2020, when, as I am convinced, full
commercialization will start. And then we can really start exchanging the current
transport fleet and the current ship fleet with hydrogen."
Jon Björn Skulason,
General Manager, Icelandic New Energy
Iceland Aims for Oil-free Energy Deutsche Welle (Germany)
May 13, 2003
|
Click to download |
Generating Solutions:
How Clean, Renewable Energy Is Boosting
Local Economies and Saving Consumers Money
U.S. PIRG Education Fund April 2003
|
 |
European Union High Level Group on Fuel
Cells releases draft report:
HYDROGEN
ENERGY
AND FUEL CELLS
- A VISION OF OUR FUTURE
In the coming decades
hydrogen will increasingly complement electricity as a key energy carrier, unlocking a
diverse range of primary energy sources to help solve Europe’s and indeed the
world’s increasing concerns over energy supply and energy security, air quality, and
global warming. Hydrogen will become commonly available on fuel station forecourts, in new
housing developments, and in large commercial and industrial facilities.
It will fuel conventional
combustion systems and fuel cells – new energy converters which are highly efficient,
intrinsically clean and quiet. Fuel cell vehicles will circulate freely, with the
possibility to be refuelled from home, even offering back-up power for homes or hospitals
if required.
Hydrogen ferries will
transfer tourists to remote islands which are self-sufficient in energy, and where hotels
and hire cars run on the same fuel, produced entirely from renewable sources. Intelligent
buildings will use fuel cells to maximise efficiency of heat, cold and electrical power.
As fuel cells become cheaper and more durable, they will offer beneficial options to
conventional combustion systems for stationary, mobile and portable power generation.
Europe will be a first
class player within the integrated world research network – developing and harnessing
hydrogen and electricity as complementary energy carriers for our planet, and exporting
technology and know-how to help sustainable development around the world. Integrating
hydrogen and electricity as energy carriers will enable the intelligent management and
efficient usage of a diverse range of primary energy sources. This flexibility will enable
Europe to optimally plan and manage its energy security – with the final goal to
become energy independent. |
EUROPE WARNED OF IMPENDING TECHNOLOGY LAG WITH U.S.
EU Urged to
Speed Up Fuel-cell Research
Karen Carstens European
Voice/Manufacturing.Net
It will have come as no surprise to most that George W. Bush
used last month's State of the Union address to pump America up for the war now being
waged in Iraq. But did anyone expect the US president to use his annual congressional
address to plug hydrogen-powered cars? " In this century, the greatest environmental
progress will come about through technology and innovation. Tonight I'm proposing $1.2
billion (1.1 bn) in research funding so that America can lead the world in developing
clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles." And it will, if the EU doesn't get its act
together soon, warns Marcus Nurdin, president of the Frankfurt-based International
Platinum Association (IPA). |
|
|
"The Canadian fuel cell
industry needs to be on a level playing field with other countries which are directing as
much as $200-million a year towards this sector."
Ron Britton, president and chief executive officer
Fuel Cells Canada
CANADA: Fuel Cell Plan
Calls for Boost
Simon Tuck and Peter Kennedy Globe
and Mail April 17, 2003
How
Hydrogen Can Save America
by Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall Wired
April 2003 |
| [ICHBC Note: This article has been nominated as one of the most
significant recent published works on creating a hydrogen future.] |
 The
cost of oil dependence has never been so clear. What had long been largely an
environmental issue has suddenly become a deadly serious strategic concern. Oil is an
indulgence we can no longer afford, not just because it will run out or turn the planet
into a sauna, but because it inexorably leads to global conflict. Enough. What we need is
a massive, Apollo-scale effort to unlock the potential of hydrogen, a virtually unlimited
source of power. The technology is at a tipping point. Terrorism provides political
urgency. Consumers are ready for an alternative. From Detroit to Dallas, even the oil
establishment is primed for change. We put a man on the moon in a decade; we can achieve
energy independence just as fast. Here's how. Four
decades ago, the United States faced a creeping menace to national security. The Soviet
Union had lobbed the first satellite into space in 1957. Then, on April 12, 1961, Russian
cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin blasted off in Vostok 1 and became the first human in orbit.
President Kennedy understood that dominating space could mean the
difference between a country able to defend itself and one at the mercy of its rivals. In
a May 1961 address to Congress, he unveiled Apollo - a 10-year program of federal
subsidies aimed at "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the
Earth." The president announced the goal, Congress appropriated the funds, scientists
and engineers put their noses to the launchpad, and - lo and behold - Neil Armstrong
stepped on the lunar surface eight years later.
The country now faces a similarly dire threat: reliance on foreign oil.
Just as President Kennedy responded to Soviet space superiority with a bold commitment,
President Bush must respond to the clout of foreign oil by making energy independence a
national priority. The president acknowledged as much by touting hydrogen fuel cells in
January's State of the Union address. But the $1.2 billion he proposed is a pittance
compared to what's needed. Only an Apollo-style effort to replace hydrocarbons with
hydrogen can liberate the US to act as a world leader rather than a slave to its appetite
for petroleum. more |
U.S., European Union to
Cooperate on Hydrogen Energy Research
American Embassy London
March 10. 2003
U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham and
European Commission President Romano Prodi have agreed to implement an annex to the
U.S.-EU Non-Nuclear Energy Cooperation Agreement that will help unify U.S. and European
approaches to hydrogen energy research.
A Greener Bush and These Fuelish Things
The Economist (UK) February
13, 2003
United Kingdom
“The White Paper shows a lack of political courage to make the hard decisions
necessary to move this country away from its dependence on fossil fuels. It outlines a
future in which nuclear power could be shut down faster than renewables and energy
efficiency measures could make up the shortfall.”
Professor David Wallis, vice-president of
the Royal Society
commenting on the United Kingdom's new energy plan
"Our Energy Future —
Creating a Low Carbon Economy"
released February 24, 2003
Blair
Urges Europe to Turn Green with Hope
Anthony Browne Times (UK)
February 25, 2003 |
A
Clean and Secure Energy Future
U.S. Department of Energy/White House January 28, 2003
Columbia's Power
The River Contains the Secret to Drive a National Energy Revolution
Jack Robertson
Register-Guard/Bluefish February 16, 2003 |
Jack Robertson of Portland worked for the
Bonneville Power Administration from 1986 through 1999, serving as acting chief executive
officer and deputy CEO. He helped found the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. From 1973
to 1982, he worked on the staff of Oregon Sen. Mark Hatfield in Washington, D.C.
The mighty Columbia River's nighttime
flow holds a remarkable secret. This secret can put the Northwest at the center of a
global energy revolution, create thousands of new jobs and help end forever our dependence
on Middle East oil.
While you sleep, the power of the Columbia River can create a
revolutionary new energy source - lighter than air, completely renewable, and yet with the
highest energy content of any fuel. In the Northwest we can produce this new fuel faster,
cleaner and cheaper than anywhere in the world. What's its source?
Water.
That's right. The power of the Columbia River can unlock hydrogen from
water. It can turn the Northwest into the Saudi Arabia of hydrogen - the revolutionary
fuel at the center of President Bush's bold, $1.2 billion proposal to build
hydrogen-powered cars and a national hydrogen infrastructure.
For centuries, people have dreamed of a limitless, clean source of
energy. For decades, scientists have known that hydrogen - the most common element in the
universe - holds the answer to a global energy revolution.
more
[CHBC Note: This article has been nominated
as one of the most significant recent published works on creating a hydrogen future.] |
U.S. Department of Energy Moves
Hydrogen Infrastructure Readiness Date Forward to 2015
Jumps ahead 35 YEARS from earlier estimate of 2050!
"We've
concluded that unless we work on parallel tracks, developing the vehicle and the
infrastructure concurrently instead of consecutively, this process would take 3 decades or
longer. But with full government backing, helping to coordinate both avenues of
research and development simultaneously, we believe that a decision to go forward with
commercialization could be made as early as 2015."
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham
Energy Secretary
Promotes Hydrogen Fuel Initiative
Bob Tipptee, Editor Oil & Gas
Journal February 12, 2003 |
 A Clean and
Secure Energy Future
U.S. Department of Energy/White House
January 28, 2003
President Bush announced a $1.2 billion FreedomFUEL
Initiative to reverse America's growing dependence on foreign oil by developing the
technology needed for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells - a way to power
cars, trucks, homes and businesses that produces no pollution and no greenhouse gases.
FreedomFUEL will invest $720 million in new funding over the next five years to develop
the technologies and infrastructure needed to produce, store, and distribute hydrogen for
use in fuel cell vehicles and electricity generation. Combined with the FreedomCAR
(Cooperative Automotive Research) Initiative, President Bush is proposing a total of $1.7
billion over the next five years to develop hydrogen-powered fuel cells, hydrogen
infrastructure and advanced automotive technologies.
The FreedomFUEL Initiative will complement the President's FreedomCAR
Initiative, which is developing technologies needed for mass production of safe and
affordable hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles.
Together, FreedomFUEL and FreedomCAR will, through partnerships with
the private sector, develop new vehicle and fuel technologies and infrastructure needed to
make it practical and cost-effective for large numbers of Americans to choose to use fuel
cell vehicles by 2020. These initiatives will dramatically improve America's energy
security by significantly reducing the need for imported oil. At the same time, these
initiatives are key components of the President's clean air and climate change strategies.
Background on Today's Action
Fuel Cells are a Proven Technology: America's astronauts have
used fuel cells to generate electricity since the 1960s, but more work is needed to make
them cost-effective for use in cars, trucks, homes or businesses. Using current
technologies, it is too expensive to produce, store, transport and distribute hydrogen
fuel, or to build fuel cell engines. Additional research and development is needed to spur
rapid commercialization of these technologies so they can provide clean, domestically
produced energy for transportation and other uses.
FreedomFUEL and FreedomCAR Will Overcome Key Technical and Cost
Barriers:
Lowering the cost of hydrogen: Currently, hydrogen is four
times as expensive to produce as gasoline (when produced from its most affordable source,
natural gas). FreedomFUEL seeks to lower that cost enough to make fuel cell cars
cost-competitive with conventional gasoline-powered vehicles by 2010; and to advance the
methods of producing hydrogen from renewable resources, nuclear energy, and even coal.
Creating effective hydrogen storage: Current hydrogen storage
systems are inadequate for use in the wide range of vehicles that consumers demand.
Creating affordable hydrogen fuel cells: Currently, fuel cells are ten times more
expensive than internal combustion engines. The FreedomCAR Initiative is working to reduce
the cost to affordable levels. America's Energy Security is Threatened by Our Dependence
on Foreign Oil:
America currently imports 55 percent of the oil it consumes; that is expected to
grow to 68 percent by 2025. Nearly all of our cars and trucks currently run on gasoline,
and they are the main reason America imports so much oil. Two-thirds of the 20 million
barrels of oil Americans use each day is used for transportation; fuel cell vehicles offer
the best hope of dramatically reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
FreedomFUEL Will Help Ensure America's Energy Independence:
Through FreedomFUEL and FreedomCAR, the federal government, automakers and energy
companies will work together to overcome the technological and financial barriers to the
successful development of commercially viable, emissions-free fuel cell vehicles that
require no foreign oil. Hydrogen is domestically available in abundant quantities as a
component of natural gas, coal, biomass, and even water. The Department of Energy
estimates that the FreedomFUEL and FreedomCAR Initiatives may reduce our demand for
foreign petroleum by over 11 million barrels per day by 2040. America currently imports
between 10 and 11 million barrels of oil daily.
Fuel Cells Will Improve Air Quality and Dramatically Reduce Greenhouse
Gas Emissions: Vehicles are a significant source of air pollution in America's
cities and urban corridors. Hydrogen fuel cells create electricity to power cars without
producing any pollution. The FreedomFUEL and FreedomCAR Initiatives may reduce America's
greenhouse gas emissions from transportation alone by more than 500 million metric tons of
carbon equivalent each year by 2040. Additional emissions reductions could be achieved by
using fuel cells in other applications, such as generating electricity for residential or
commercial uses.
Hydrogen is the Key to a Clean Energy Future: It has the
highest energy content per unit of weight of any known fuel. When burned in an engine,
hydrogen produces effectively zero emissions; when powering a fuel cell, its only waste is
pure water. Hydrogen can be produced from abundant domestic resources including natural
gas, coal, biomass, and even water. Combined with other technologies such as carbon
capture and storage, renewable energy and fusion energy, fuel cells could make an
emissions-free energy future possible.
FreedomFUEL Complements President Bush's FreedomCAR Initiative: In
2002, President Bush launched FreedomCAR, a partnership with automakers to advance
high-technology research needed to produce practical, affordable hydrogen fuel cell
vehicles that American consumers will want to buy and drive. FreedomFUEL will develop
technologies for hydrogen production and distribution infrastructure needed to power fuel
cell vehicles and stationary fuel cell power sources.
President Bush's Budget Provides Strong Support for FreedomFUEL and
FreedomCAR: President Bush proposes $1.7 billion in funding for FreedomFUEL and
FreedomCAR over the next five years, including $720 million in new funding for
FreedomFUEL. The President's FY 2004 budget request for hydrogen and fuel cell research
and development and advanced automotive technologies through the Freedom Fuel and
FreedomCAR programs is $273 million.
For more information on the President's initiatives, please visit www.whitehouse.gov |
UNITED STATES TO PURSUE MAGNETIC
HYDROGEN FUSION ENERGY
Bush Administration Endorses International ITER Project |
 "The results of ITER will advance the effort to produce clean,
safe, renewable, and commercially-available fusion energy by the middle of this
century."
U.S. President George W. Bush
Statement by the President
U.S. White House January
30, 2003 |
|
|
COULD
ISRAEL BECOME A PROTOTYPE FOR THE U.S. HYDROGEN ECONOMY? |
 |
A high-level
international conference sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Israeli Ministry
of National Infrastructures and the American Jewish Congress will examine converting
Israel to a hydrogen economy and renewable energy technology manufacturing powerhouse for
the Middle East.
GO TO NEW WEB SITE
BUILT WITH ASSISTANCE OF THE CALIFORNIA HYDROGEN BUSINESS COUNCIL |
ENDING OIL DOMINANCE AND TERRORISM IN THE MIDDLE
EAST
THE NEW MARSHALL PLAN --
Israeli industrialist Stef Wertheimer's testimony before the United States
House of Representatives Committee on International Relations July 24, 2002 |
Drilling for Freedom
by Thomas L. Friedman The
New York Times October
20, 2002
There are two ways for a government to get rich
in the Middle East. One is by drilling a sand dune and the other is by drilling the
talents, intelligence, creativity and energy of its men and women. As long as the
autocratic leaders of Iran, Iraq or Saudi Arabia can get rich by drilling their natural
resources, they can stay in power a long, long time. All they have to do is capture
control of the oil tap. Only when a government has to drill its human resources will it
organize itself in a way that enables it to extract those talents — with modern
education, open trade, and freedom of thought, of scientific enquiry and of the press.
For all these reasons, if we really want to hasten the transition from
autocracy to something more democratic in places like Iraq or Iran, the most important
thing we can do is gradually, but steadily, bring down the price of oil — through
conservation and alternative energies.
I know that Dick Cheney thinks conservation is for sissies. Real men
send B-52's. But he's dead wrong. In the Middle East, conservation and alternative
energies are strategic tools. Ronald Reagan helped bring down the Soviet Union by using
two tactics: he delegitimized the Soviets and he defueled them. He delegitimized them by
branding the Soviet Union an "Evil Empire," and by exposing its youth to what
was going on elsewhere in the world, and he defueled them by so outspending them on Star
Wars that the Soviet Union went bankrupt. In the Middle East today, the Bush team is
delegitimizing the worst regimes as an "axis of evil," but it is doing nothing
to defuel them. Just the opposite. We refuel them with our big cars.
Which was the first and only real Arab democracy? Lebanon. Which Arab
country had no oil? Lebanon. Which is the first Arab oil state to turn itself into a
constitutional monarchy? Bahrain. Which is the first Arab oil state to run out of oil?
Bahrain.
Ousting Saddam is necessary for promoting the spread of democracy in
the Middle East, but it won't be sufficient, it won't stick, without the Mideast states
kicking their oil dependency and without us kicking ours. |
"If
businesses start taking an offensive instead of a defensive attitude to environmental
issues, then many opportunities appear." |
 |
Masatsugu Taniguchi
----HYDROGEN HERO
Skipping stones across an inlet, the 64-year-old cement
executive hardly seems like someone out to change the world. But Masatsugu Taniguchi aims
to do exactly that. |
He is leaving Taiheiyo Cement Co
to start a new career on Yakushima Island,
south of Kyushu, Japan, a place designated by the UN as a world heritage nature preserve.
His mission: to create the world’s first zero-emission, hydrogen-based economy –
and to pull it off through no-nonsense business principles, not tree-hugging wishful
thinking.
“I heard that Iceland was planning to switch its economy over to
hydrogen, and I realised we could do it way faster on Yakushima,” says Taniguchi. The
338-square-mile Yakushima
makes a perfect test case. It is a steep granite island drowning in 320 inches of rainfall
a year. That means it can, says the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, potentially
generate 233 megawatts of hydropower without having to build any dams bigger than 100
feet. Strong ocean winds are another potential source of energy. In addition to harnessing
hydroelectric power from an existing 60-megawatt plant to make silicon carbide, used in
various industries, Taniguchi realised he could make plenty of cheap hydrogen fuel with
current technology.
Huge surplus
Hydrolysis – running an electric current through water to
produce hydrogen – yields fuel that is usually not economically competitive with
other forms of energy. In Yakushima’s case, though, there is a huge surplus of
electric power that can’t be stored or exported to the mainland; creating hydrogen
and forcing it into tanks at 350 times atmospheric pressure makes economic sense. Such
hydrogen can be exported in tankers, similar to those that carry liquefied natural gas. To
set up the infrastructure, Taniguchi created a consortium called the Yakushima Clean
Energy Partners (YCEP) and would like to gather US$24 million from private investors,
including automakers, other major companies and various municipalities.
That initial investment should provide the island’s 14,000
residents with enough clean electricity to shut down its heavy-oil-powered generator in
2004. In the longer run, by 2020 or so, Taniguchi envisions that there will be sufficient
hydro and wind power to supply 500,000 mainland cars with hydrogen. This will be a huge
boon to the island’s tourism industry, which employs 24 per cent of the work force
(fishing and forestry are also big here). Already 200,000 eco-tourists a year flock to see
the island’s towering 1,000-to-7,200-year-old cedars, phantasmagoria plant life and
hordes of monkeys.
“It is a wonderful idea,” says Yuji Kawaguchi,
Honda’s top researcher for future auto technologies. He says it’s the best
private-sector plan he has seen for a hydrogen economy. By contrast, he criticises several
US and Japanese government hydrogen plans as being too geographically scattered. He has
shown a strong interest in turning the island into a giant laboratory when the switch to
fuel cell vehicles begins in earnest 10 to 15 years from now, as well as in testing the
safety of hydrogen gas stations, the long-term reliability of cars and the economic
viability of fuel cells.
Loosen restrictions
YCEP aims to be profitable from the start,
initially by selling electricity to the residents and later by peddling hydrogen to
automakers. Tourists who visit Yakushima will be required to ride hydrogen-powered buses.
First, however, Taniguchi must get bureaucrats to loosen overall restrictions that
prevent, for example, the importation of fuel cell buses that already meet European and
American safety standards. The island is likely to be designated a special economic zone
with relaxed hydrogen regulations within 2003, so that in 2004 the first hydrogen buses
and cars will be running.
Toyota announced in July that within a year it would introduce
20 fuel cell cars. It is due to give four of them to the Japanese government as well as
two to the University of California’s Irvine and Davis campuses in December. The
lease is US$10,000 a month for 30 months. By 2008 the price should be somewhat lower
– and many Yakushima residents, subsidised by the government, are likely to be
driving them. By 2020 or so, depending on the progress of fuel cell technology, the last
of the island’s 9,500 gasoline cars will be gone and only water-vapour-emitting fuel
cell autos will remain, according to Taniguchi’s plan.
Can the Yakushima model be exported? It might make sense for
vacation spots, like Kami Kochi
National Park in the Japanese Alps, which have an abundance of potential
hydroelectric power. Imagining hydrogen-powered cars and buses in Yosemite and Yellowstone
is a little more difficult, given the unpredictable snowfall and the fact that visitors to
US parks drive in from cities where gasoline remains the norm. Still, the city of Tokyo
has already banned diesel cars (effective October 2003), and there is talk of eventually
banning all hydrocarbon-based cars from the city centre.
It will take visionaries like Taniguchi to bring the hydrogen
economy closer, say realists like Masasuke Takata, a professor at Nagoaka University of
Technology in Niigata, and to keep the public’s expectations a few notches below the
utterly impossible. Says he: “Ten years ago people were predicting hydrogen would be
economical within a decade, but gasoline kept getting cheaper.” He nonetheless
believes that fuel cells are already making inroads, as combined heating and electric
systems for large buildings. Within a decade, he says, if gasoline prices rise and fuel
cell cars get cheaper, the switchover could begin.
Enviro-capitalist reputation
Taniguchi has a
reputation as an enviro-capitalist stretching back decades. Graduating from the Kyushu
Institute of Technology in 1960 with a degree in mining engineering, he discovered there
was no work underground, so he joined what is now known as Taiheiyo Cement. But he put his
training to work, filling empty iron and copper-ore ships with lime and selling it to
mines that exported the ore (lime is used to neutralise acid used in mining). “As I
visited mine sites around the world I began to feel with my own skin how seriously they
damaged the environment and wondered if there was not a business opportunity here,”
he says. Taniguchi travelled the world in search of ideas that would both make money and
reduce the damage caused by industry.
Realising a lot of industrial waste contained ingredients that
could be profitably recovered; he became an enthusiastic recycler of gypsum in Japan.
Scrubbers used in thermal power plants, for instance, require limestone to capture sulphur
from their exhaust. The reaction creates gypsum that can be sold to companies like
wallboard makers. That particular variety of waste recycling is now common around the
world, and Taiheiyo makes a big business of it.
Taniguchi was also inspired to use cement furnaces to aid in the
disposal of household garbage. In Sweden he visited a plant where refuse is rotated in an
unused rotary kiln for three days, allowing bacteria that thrive in that temperature to
quickly degrade it into fertiliser and bits of plastic. “It smelled so bad that when
I left even my underwear stank,” he recalls. He realised that if the building were
sealed and the foul exhaust pumped into a 3,600-degree cement furnace, the odour
disappeared.
Taiheiyo was able to create a US$375-million-a-year sideline in
waste treatment with, Taniguchi says, a 20 per cent operating margin. “If businesses
start taking an offensive instead of a defensive attitude to environmental issues, then
many opportunities appear,” he says.
The practical side of this dreamer was forged early. Taniguchi
was just 8 years old and just a mile and a quarter from ground zero when the atom bomb hit Hiroshima.
Aside from losing his hair for a while, he was unharmed. The grisly experience, he
insists, did not affect his views on the environment or atomic energy: “I just think
that people are so scared of nuclear energy that power plants end up so over-designed for
safety they are not profitable.”
Just the kind of attitude to face his greatest challenge yet.
Mister
Natural Aims to Change the World
The Star (Malaysia) January 4, 2003
|
"Often
we look back at previous civilisations and cannot understand why they failed to adapt in
ways that seem like common sense to us now. The original civilisations of South America
only used the wheel as a toy and not as tool. The generals of World War One stuck to
cavalry and ignored the tank. In failing to understand why they may not have accepted an
'obvious' change, we begin to consider ourselves superior and become blind to the very
similar institutional and political forces which bedevil our ability to change today.
"In ignoring the shift to renewable energy for transport we
would be making a
 similar error, and will face a similar judgement of history. We must
not be prisoners of our own time. Just as we moved from horse to canal to steam to petrol
we now must move to renewables, for our health, our environment and – yes – our
security too."
Peter Hain, Foreign Minister of the UK
Enhancing Energy
Security RUSI Energy Security
Symposium
October 17, 2002
Blood
and Oil
by Randeep Ramesh The Guardian (UK)
October 17, 2002
The question of whether oil is worth
spilling blood over has been quietly raised by the foreign office minister, Peter Hain. In
a speech today to the Royal United Services Institute
in London, Mr Hain notes that the cost of protecting the Middle East's oil reserves, paid
for mostly by the US and without which the west would grind to a halt, is as high as $25
(£16) a barrel - about the same as it costs to buy. Mr Hain, seen as an outrider for
Blairite thinking, goes on to warn that no amount of money will guarantee petrol supplies
to the west and consumers should be weaning themselves off the black stuff. At present the
world remains so dependent on oil for transport, it cannot stand any disruption in
supplies. Remember the chaos and gridlock that the fuel protests brought to Britain? Tony
Blair does and now recognises the explosive nature of rising petrol prices.
The potency of the oil weapon is not lost on Osama bin Laden, either,
who has stated that crude oil should sell at $144 a barrel - about five times the price at
which it currently trades. The attack on the Limburg oil tanker off Yemen's coast may
prove to be al-Qaida's first targeting of the global economy.
The Bush administration prefers not to discuss the economic effects of
the war on terrorism as this could sap support domestically and abroad, especially in the
Arab world where critics suspect, with good reason, the US of wanting to seize its vast
petroleum riches. Instead the White House prefers to talk about imposing democracy and
ridding the world of weapons of mass destruction. These are noble aims, but they are
undermined by leaks suggesting a bolder grab for oil riches. more |
Dean's Vision at WSU School
Focuses on New Technology Role
Detroit News (MI) September 29, 2002
EUROPE TO ABANDON MIDDLE EAST
OIL
"It's like going to the
moon..."
Hydrogen Hero
European Commission President Romano Prodi
Prodi Hopes to Vault
European Union To Front of Hydrogen Race
Massive increase in research and development spending,
to over $2 billion in 2003-2006
from roughly $125 million in the past three years
by Scott Miller, Bhushan Bahree and Jeffrey Ball - Wall Street Journal
As the U.S. did earlier this year,
Europe is launching a high-profile push toward a massive increase in hydrogen research and
development. European Commission President Romano Prodi says the scientific program will
be as important for Europe as the space program was for the U.S. in the 1960s.
If successful, hydrogen power also would relieve Europe from a
potentially dangerous and growing reliance on imported oil and gas, and address the
concerns of the region's politically powerful green lobbies. Mr. Prodi said that hydrogen
power, although still years from widespread use, has reached a point where it presents a
realistic alternative to fossil fuels.
Government financial support and legislation, he said, could now push
the technology toward practical use, thrusting Europe into the global lead in hydrogen and
triggering a wave of scientific achievement.
"It's like going to the moon in a series of steps," he said
of the European Union's hydrogen ambitions. ...Mr. Prodi, who compared the importance of
his hydrogen initiatives with the introduction of the euro and EU enlargement, said that
the technology carried a higher priority in Europe than in the U.S., where fuel is
cheaper. "For us, it's even more urgent than it is for the U.S.," Mr. Prodi
said.
"An appropriate hydrogen
infrastructure must be developed as this does not exist today. This will include
establishment of hydrogen production and storage facilities, as well as hydrogen
distribution and delivery systems."
Philippe Busquin
European Commissioner in charge of Research
Hydrogen
and Fuel Cells the Bridge to Sustainable Energy?
High Level Group for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell October 10 2002
"Vehicles powered by
hydrogen produced from solar energy will soon be on the roads."
Jürgen Trittin
German Federal Environment Minister
die tageszeitung (taz)
September 25, 2002
"At some point, the reality
is going to set in that Europe is heading into a new energy future. When that happens, the
ripple effect could cross the pond like a great tsunami - forcing the US to rethink its
own energy future."
Jeremy Rifkin
End of the
Fossil-fuel Era Washington
Post September 26, 2002
Norway's Statoil Proposes World's
Largest Geothermal Plant and Longest Undersea Power Cable
Geothermal heat from
1-2,000 metres below ground will be brought to the surface to drive turbines, which in
turn run electricity generators. A station would be able to generate about five
terawatt-hours per year, which corresponds to four-five per cent of Norway's annual
hydropower output. If the plans are implemented, the required submarine power cable will
be 1,200 kilometres long – but the energy loss over this distance is only about six
per cent.
Green power from
Iceland - by Inger Ueland, Statoil
Hawai'i's Future Requires
Technology-based Growth
Shelley M. Mark Honolulu Advertiser December 8, 2002
As we criss-cross our islands,
we are struck by the contradiction between our abundance of renewable energy resources and
our dependence on imported fuels to meet our energy needs.
Hydrogen fuel cells produced from our vast renewable energy resources
can reduce Hawai'i's dependence on fossil fuels, promote higher energy efficiencies and
eventually bring down the price of gasoline for our consumers. Specifically, there is need
for a comprehensive engineering and market study for the production of hydrogen cells in
Hawai'i, using actual cost data from industry.
By coming together in a common purpose — business, labor,
academics, communities and government — we can achieve our goals and realize our
vision. As we see it, the key is the knowledge we have attained, the technological
progress we have made, and our respect for the natural beauty that has made Hawai'i so
special. |
Hydrotopia
Salon.com September 24, 2002
Advanced Technology Paths to
Global Climate Stability
Energy for a Greenhouse Planet
- Science
Volume 298, Number 5595, Issue
of 1 Nov 2002, pp. 981-987 |
Apollo Program for Energy?
Is it feasible to
replace fossil fuels with cleaner sources of energy? A new study concludes that it could
be done with enough “political will” and what the lead researcher described as a
global effort pursued with the same urgency as the Apollo space program.
by Miguel Llanos MSNBC October
31, 2002 |
The study by 18 scientists and
engineers in university, government and private labs evaluated technologies that would
make energy without burning oil, coal or natural gas and found that no single system or
combination of systems could replace these fossil fuels, based on the present level of
development.
..."What our research clearly shows is that scientific innovation
can only reverse this trend if we adopt an aggressive, global strategy for developing
alternative fuel sources that can produce up to three times the amount of power we use
today,'' said Hoffert, first author of the study. ``Currently, these technologies simply
don't exist.''
Hoffert said U.S. government policy favors increased domestic oil
production and shortchanges energy technology research that might lead ultimately and
economically to replacing fossil fuels.
...Currently, the world's power consumption is about 12 trillion watts,
with 85 percent of it produced by burning fossil fuels. To stabilize the amount of carbon
dioxide emitted to the atmosphere by the middle of the century while still permitting the
current level of global economic expansion would require production of about 30 trillion
watts of power worldwide using power systems that do not emit carbon dioxide, the study
found. For that to happen, said Hoffert, the United States and other countries need a
crash program of alternate energy technology development.
Experts Question New Energy Sources - AP/New York Times |
Venture
Investment in Clean Technologies Set to Exceed US$1 Billion
September 27, 2002
David vs. Goliath
Hydrogen Hero
California Air Resorces Board Chairman Alan Lloyd
Editorial:
Bush vs. California
Clean Air Attack Hits Home
Sacramento Bee (California)
October 15,
2002
President Bush declared
war on the Clean Air Act the day he took office. The amicus brief the Bush Justice
Department filed on behalf of car companies suing California is just the latest attack and
the one that hits closest to home.
The Bush administration has joined General Motors and Daimler-Chrysler
in their lawsuit to overturn the state's historic Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate. The
federal action is a direct and unprecedented assault on California's ability to protect
its environment. California must fight back.
Originally, the state's clean air mandate required that 10 percent of
new cars sold in the state in 2003 had to be zero polluting. At the behest of carmakers,
the requirement has been whittled back to little beyond the symbolic. Today, the ZEV
mandate requires that automakers produce a mere 4,300 to 9,400 nonpolluting, mostly
battery-powered cars.
State regulators reluctantly accepted the car companies' argument that
there was no market for electric cars. They changed the rules to allow increasingly
popular hybrids, cars that run on batteries and gasoline, to receive partial credit under
the ZEV 10 percent mandate. The changes were made in cooperation with the industry, to
give automakers what they said they wanted: more flexibility to explore promising new
clean-air technologies, including hybrids and fuel cells.
Ironically, these more flexible rules are the very ones GM and
Daimler-Chrysler and their allies in the White House have challenged. They argue that the
new rules violate a federal law that bars states from setting fuel-mileage standards.
While lower gas consumption may be an unintended but welcome benefit of the new rules,
they were not the impetus.
Car companies know that; they lobbied for and then helped write these
rules.
Now, cynically, they've sued to overturn them, and the White House has
joined in the effort. The federal trial court judge has sided with the plaintiffs and
enjoined the ZEV rules. California has appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The lawsuit is a dangerous challenge to California's long-standing
authority to go further than the federal government has ever been willing to go to protect
the air we breathe. That authority has served the state and the country well.
Over the last 30 years, prodded mostly by California, the automobile
industry has produced steadily cleaner cars. By its actions, the Bush administration would
halt that progress. By fighting back in court, California is serving the best interests of
not only its own citizens, but also of citizens in other states.
Advanced Technology Paths to
Global Climate Stability:
Energy for a Greenhouse Planet
- Science
Volume 298, Number 5595, Issue
of 1 Nov 2002, pp. 981-987 |
The study by 18 scientists and
engineers in university, government and private labs evaluated technologies that would
make energy without burning oil, coal or natural gas and found that no single system or
combination of systems could replace these fossil fuels, based on the present level of
development.
..."What our research clearly shows is that scientific innovation
can only reverse this trend if we adopt an aggressive, global strategy for developing
alternative fuel sources that can produce up to three times the amount of power we use
today,'' said Hoffert, first author of the study. ``Currently, these technologies simply
don't exist.''
Hoffert said U.S. government policy favors increased domestic oil
production and shortchanges energy technology research that might lead ultimately and
economically to replacing fossil fuels.
...Currently, the world's power consumption is about 12 trillion watts,
with 85 percent of it produced by burning fossil fuels. To stabilize the amount of carbon
dioxide emitted to the atmosphere by the middle of the century while still permitting the
current level of global economic expansion would require production of about 30 trillion
watts of power worldwide using power systems that do not emit carbon dioxide, the study
found. For that to happen, said Hoffert, the United States and other countries need a
crash program of alternate energy technology development.
Experts Question New Energy Sources - AP/New York Times |
British Columbia: Don't Fumble Our
Lead
by David Berkowitz - Globe and Mail (Canada)
October 15, 2002
B.C. has world-class research
institutions that struggle to generate funding for their fuel cell initiatives. Ottawa's
contribution pales in comparison to investments being made by other foreign governments,
including the Americans, Germans and Japanese. Meantime, our government wastes millions of
dollars trying to play catch-up in sectors and regions in which we're followers, rather
than focusing on sectors where we can lead.
If Jean Chrétien wants to leave a legacy to our economy and
environment, he should stop his grandstanding on Kyoto and commit investments in the
hydrogen economy.
 EUROPEAN
PARLIAMENT
Alternative-fuelled Transport
Could Help Meet Rapidly Approaching EU Energy Targets
Environmental Data Interactive/Faversham House Group September
9, 2002 Italian MEP Francesco Fiori is
calling for the EU to actively support alternative fuels through a programme of research,
promotion and tax exemption. ...Fiori’s report calls for greater support for hydrogen
research and development, urging tax exemption for fuel cell research. It also recommends
strengthening the infrastructure for hydrogen distribution and storage to ensure Europe
becomes a world leader in the production of alternative-fuelled vehicles. To achieve these
goals, says Fiori, the European Commission should draw up an action plan of encouragement
and tax incentives for gas fuels. |
DRAFT REPORT on the Commission Communication on Alternative Fuels for Road transportation and
on a Set of Measures to Promote the Use of Biofuels
Committee on Industry, External Trade,
Research and Energy
Francesco Fiori
September 3, 2002
EXCERPT:
16. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to step up research to develop
the use of hydrogen in order to encourage the entry into the market of zero-emission
vehicles;
17. Considers that development of and research on fuel cells offers very
promising prospects in view of their negligible environmental impact and calls on the
Member States to consider the possibility of providing for tax exemption in that sector;
18. Considers that it is important to encourage, in the short and medium term,
the use of hydrogen as a motor fuel, particularly for public transport, while obtaining it
mainly from non-fossil fuels such as nuclear energy or renewable energy sources;
19. Calls on the Member States to make the necessary efforts to construct
adequate infrastructures for the distribution of hydrogen and to improve storage systems
(which currently require large and heavy tanks);
20. Encourages the implementation of pilot and demonstration projects for
natural gas, fuel cells and hydrogen, such as the project co-funded by the Commission for
the deployment of 30 hydrogen-powered buses in ten European cities; .... |
The European Thematic Network on
Hydrogen |
An Open Letter to the American People
Scientists for a Sustainable Energy Future
 Hydrogen
Can It Fuel Hawaii's Future?
by Kelli Abe Trifonovitch
Hawaii Business Journal September
2002 |
"We want people to
say ‘hydrogen’ and ‘Hawaii’ in the same breath.”
Representative Mina Morita
Hawaiian House Chair, Energy and Environmental Protection
“Our niche, I think, will be that we can leapfrog the
technology by generating hydrogen primarily from renewable sources of energy,” says
Maurice Kaya, administrator of the Energy Resources and Technology Division of the state
Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT). “The emphasis on
fuel cells and hydrogen elsewhere is largely being based on reforming natural gas to be
put into fuel cells.”
Last year, Gov. Ben Cayetano signed Act 283, appropriating $200,000 for
hydrogen development and research. The act says that the federal government spends an
average of $18 million annually for hydrogen research and development and puts the market
capitalization of fuel-cell companies that use hydrogen as a fuel source at more than $10
billion. DBEDT used the appropriation to contract with the University of Hawaii’s
Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, which has been recognized by the DOE as a hydrogen
research center of excellence. The natural energy institute partnered with SenTech Corp.
of Maryland to produce a report on the feasibility of hydrogen and fuel- cell use in
Hawaii.
The Hawaii Natural Energy Institute/SenTech report says, “The
state of Hawaii with its vast renewable energy resources, energy expertise, critical need
for greater fuel diversity and stated policy to achieve increased energy self-sufficiency,
provides a natural ‘testbed’ for hydrogen and fuel-cell research; and could also
significantly benefit, both environmentally and economically, from the utilization of
hydrogen in the state’s transportation and power-generation sectors.”
Since then, the natural-energy institute has laid the groundwork to set
some major demonstration projects into motion, including partnerships with some of the big
hydrogen players such as Connecticut-based UTC Fuel Cells, a unit of United Technologies
Corp. (NYSE: UTX), and Canada’s Stuart Energy Systems (TSE:HHO) as well as local
utilities, such as the Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc. (HECO) and Hawaiian Electric Light Co.
(HELCO), subsidiaries of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. (NYSE:HE) and The Gas
Co. more
“Hawaii’s a fantastic place to prove the
hydrogen economy. … because fuel prices are so high, because Hawaii is not connected
to the rest of the country in terms of the grid, because there’s so much renewable
energy resources here – solar, wind, geothermal – even more so on the Big
Island, where you have an excess of power during peak periods, you can be using that to
convert it to hydrogen. So it’s a perfect way to kick-start the hydrogen
economy.”
Dustin Shindo
president and chief executive officer of Hoku Scientific Inc.
Hawai'i's Future Requires
Technology-based Growth
Shelley M. Mark Honolulu Advertiser December 8, 2002
As we criss-cross our islands,
we are struck by the contradiction between our abundance of renewable energy resources and
our dependence on imported fuels to meet our energy needs.
Hydrogen fuel cells produced from our vast renewable energy resources
can reduce Hawai'i's dependence on fossil fuels, promote higher energy efficiencies and
eventually bring down the price of gasoline for our consumers. Specifically, there is need
for a comprehensive engineering and market study for the production of hydrogen cells in
Hawai'i, using actual cost data from industry.
By coming together in a common purpose — business, labor,
academics, communities and government — we can achieve our goals and realize our
vision. As we see it, the key is the knowledge we have attained, the technological
progress we have made, and our respect for the natural beauty that has made Hawai'i so
special. |
|
Representative Mina Morita
Hawaiian House Chair, Energy and Environmental Protection
Hydrogen for Hawaii
Presentation to Fall 2000 CHBC Meeting
California Air Resources Board Headquarters, Sacramento
Quicktime by VIMS get quicktime |
Latest Partner Gets
Fuel-cell Work Started
Ben DiPietro Pacific Business News (HI) December
13, 2002
The facility will
focus on using fuel cells in transportation applications, with a focus on military and
commercial uses, said Rick Rocheleau, director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute.
Part of that new money is being used to find research partners. The UH center received $2
million in funding in 2002, mostly from the Office of Naval Research, and will receive
$2.6 million for use in 2003.
"UTC Fuel Cells is providing infrastructure development, technical
know-how, management and training help to help us form other partnerships," Rocheleau
said. "Hawaiian Electric is providing the site and some infrastructure development.
Stuart Energy will help with hydrogen production. ONR [Office of Naval Research] is
providing the bulk of the funding for this project. The paperwork for [the Stuart]
agreement just went out this week to provide on-site hydrogen production."
It's the first time UTC is allowing one of its fuel-cell test stands to
be used outside of one of its own facilities. |
Ford
Decision May Boost Hawaii Hydrogen Fuel Cell Industry
Pacific Business News (HI) September 2, 2002
Also see the complete script of HYDROGEN
HAWAII |
Iceland: Hydrogen
Economy Update
by Sharon Wheeler BBC (UK)
August 21, 2002
1 2 3 DESIGNING THE FUTURE 4 5
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