During this darkest of seasons, Icelandic New Energy and Brimborg, Ford retailer in Iceland, have the pleasure of announcing still further steps in demonstrating hydrogen as fuel for transport; hydrogen which is made from water and renewable power from local resources. Ten Ford Focus FCV will be integrated into the traffic in Reykjavik in December 2009. These are all used fuel cell vehicles and the goal of this project step is to further test customer acceptance and endurance of the fuel cell technology. We are happy that this event occurs during the important COP meeting in Copenhagen and remind our readers to look up the common statement of 7 car producers on fuel cell vehicles. Clean solutions need moral support.
Iceland as a test ground
Since 1999 Icelandic New Energy has been acting as a facilitator to integrate hydrogen as fuel into society. Using electro-mobility is a natural extension of the local energy infrastructure, which runs entirely on renewable energy. Using local electricity to substitute for carbonated imported fuel has been a central policy of Icelandic government throughout the twentieth century and may lead to the benchmarking achievement in a country that has been highly dependent on the import of fossil fuels.
Ford recognition of Iceland’s experience, research and skills in handling hydrogen is the key reason for testing the durability and further enhancement of mapping customer acceptance in Iceland. Shell Hydrogen in cooperation with Skeljungur have kept a commercial refueling station running for 6 years, with >98% uptime in the last 2 years. This achievement along with trained researcher and maintenance staff for both vehicles and infrastructure makes Iceland an extremely attractive location for hydrogen and fuel cell testing. Two Ford vehicles have already been in use in Iceland rendering good experience. The addition will make the total hydrogen vehicle fleet the largest one in Europe with 22 H2 vehicles in service in Reykjavik.
The development of fuel cell vehicles has progressed throughout the last decade in tandem with advancements in clean battery technology. In September 2009 seven large car manufacturers jointly announced that several commercial fuel cell vehicles should be available, “in hundreds of thousands of units by 2015”. With this in mind Iceland is still on
the track that was laid out in 1999 envisioning the increased market share of alternative vehicles and domestic fuel. The experience from a decade of vehicles’ demonstrations, as well as marine and stationary applications, provides a perfect basis for further societal research and demonstrations. The near term goal of the government is to increase drastically the use of domestic energy in transport not the least in e-mobility. Seeing hydrogen fuel cell and battery development go hand in hand towards commercialization is a beautiful vision. This vision is perfectly in accordance with the goal of replacing fossil fuels, which currently amount to 20% of the energy usage, with renewable energy for all sectors in Iceland.As before the cars will be rented out to companies in Reykjavik. They are mostly used by staff that need to attend to various business on the move. All of them have number plates thad begin with H2 for example: H2 015. Still the hydrogen station at Grjothals serves these vehicles for fuel.
