Currently, most hydrogen is made in methods that most would consider rather un-green. Some people have proposed using solar or wind power to produce electricity which could then be used to free hydrogen molecules from water. Then, that hydrogen could be used to power an electric car, thus completing the cycle by sending water back out the tailpipe. You are not alone if you think that this plan has major drawbacks. I won't be touching on that here, though, 'cause that's a story for a different time. What we will be discussing is Iceland and their plans to use geothermal and hydropower to generate the hydrogen. We have covered this before, way back in November of last year.
To show that they are serious about the prospect of using hydrogen, Iceland has recently begun renting a small fleet of Toyota Priuses converted to use hydrogen, provided by Hertz. This is part of the SMART-H2 (Sustainable Marine and Road Transport - Hydrogen in Iceland) plan, which also includes a whale watching ship.
They have also gotten an A Class compact car from Mercedes which was converted to run on hydrogen. Two Icelandic energy utilities will use the car for a year and determine how useful it was. I wonder if they have already tried using straight electric cars...
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[Source: Detroit News and Fuel Cell Today]
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