First hydrogen public fuelling station opens in Iceland
According to Ecoticias (in Spanish), Iceland opened the world's first hydrogen fuelling station for a bus fleet four years ago. Icelandic New Energy, the owner of the station, has decided that from now on, the station will be open for everybody who wants to fill up any hydrogen-fuelled vehicle.New Energy's plans for hydrogen are backed up by Iceland's government, which aims to have 40 percent of the vehicles running on the streets of Reykjavík to be hydrogen-powered by 2009. The plan goes even further: Iceland aims for be a fossil fuel-free country by 2050.
The good thing is that the availability of geothermal and hydroelectric resources in the country is so good that Iceland can produce hydrogen from non-polluting sources.
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[Source: Ecoticias]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dad 9:15PM (12/01/2007)
"Iceland aims for be a fossil fuel-free country by 2050."
Wow, no plastic (wonder how they will do that)? No engine oil based upon fossil fuel free? No WD-40? No computers, LCD screens, etc. No automobiles produced using fossil fuels? Or do they consider the production of oil, plastic, LCDs, computers, etc to be a use of fossil fuel? Or do they mean just for heat, cars, power generation? Will their being fossil fuel free they will just rely on imports into Icelnad via ships and planes that arefossil fuel free? Or will all the products they use depend on fossil fuel consuming transportation? I look forward to see how Iceland does in a fossil fuel free world. And why will it take them until 2050? Why not 2010?
PS Sounds like more "baloney sausage". But then their BS will be free of fossil fuels ;-)
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Arnie 10:10PM (12/01/2007)
I like your reasoning dad. If it's not perfect, it's stupid. Let's just give up ehh?
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Dad 10:31PM (12/01/2007)
"I like your reasoning dad. If it's not perfect, it's stupid. Let's just give up ehh?"
heck no, nothing is perfect, not even Iceland.
I have a solar hot water panels on my roof. Is it perfect? Not even close right now in the middle of a snow storm. Will I give up? No way. But I would never walk around bragging how I will be "fossil fuel free" by 2050. That is simply lame. I might say no use of natural gas for 6 months out of the year (I use my solar clothes dryer AKA clothes line ;-) to avoid my gas dryer. I ride my bike 8 months out of the year, so no use of my car or any fossil fuel. But, I am imperfect and use my car 4 months out of the year.
The truth, when examined, sometimes makes folks look stupid.
To advertise Iceland as fossil fuel free by 2050 is stupid. If my pointing out the obvious is stupid, then guilty as charged!
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Emil 3:41PM (12/02/2007)
To Dad & anybody
Sweden has recently announced its plan to became oil-free by 2025.
http://biopact.com/2007_09_23_archive.html of google "Sweden oil free 2025"
This nation doesn't seem me a stupid one ...
And if Sweden can do it by 2025, why can't Iceland do it 25 years later ?
IMHO,the importantce of these statements is huge : the free world must know, that Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Putin and their buddies won't terrorize us forever.
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ryan 9:18AM (12/02/2007)
Dad is right on.
It is almost impossible for a single person to live independently of fossil fuels. Now expand that lifestyle to an entire country and you can see how ridiculous Iceland's claim is.
Course, by the year 2050, there won't BE any fossil fuels left to speak of.. so maybe THAT is where they were going with the comment? With all of their geothermal access, they might be able to weather the impending doom that the oil crash will bring with it.
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Arnie 11:43AM (12/02/2007)
Dad, I'm not flaming you. I agree that this "goal" is pretty stupid if we are talking about totally "fossil free" country. That's not going to happen. However, fossil free transportation is possible although the estimates are a bit optimistic to say the least. My point is that there is no reason to ridicule that effort because the goal (the way it's presented here at least) is unrealistic. Just moving into hydrogen for say 20-50% of transportation would be a great result. The problems with goals as set forth by politicians is that they are just for show. This one is among them, just like the CAFE goals from the Democratic contenders.
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Chris M 2:19AM (12/03/2007)
They plan to replace 40% of their cars in just two years? With the very high cost and extremely limited availability of H2 cars, it seems most unlikely to me, even with government subsidies. Moreover, they won't have enough H2 to run 40% of the cars, especially if they use electrolysis - their renewable power supply is large but not unlimited.
Maybe they will come to their senses and go for the more efficient less expensive "plug-in" vehicles, they use only 1/3 the electricity used for electrolysis for a H2 fuel cell vehicle. Unfortunately, with government bureucratic inertia, that may take some time.
As for being "fossil fuel free" by 2050, the key word is "fuel". Petrochemicals that are not used as fuels can hardly be considered "fossil fuels", nor can Iceland be considered responsible for fuel use elsewhere.
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alaskanwarrior 12:13AM (1/20/2008)
They are talking about fossil fuels, the burning of these resources for the purposes of transportation, heating and electrical generation.
The country of Iceland will in large part be able to do this, as they all ready have most streets heated in the winter, geothermic electrical generation.
I don't think that they ever claimed to be a wholesale condemnation of using hydrocarbons just the stupid practice of burning a finite resources up with no long term gains... perhaps there are better things that can be done with them, just ask any chemist what could be done with the hydro carbons that are burned up today.
Dad your reasoning is faulty and your methods for drawing conclusion are sloppy, just nuke the whole plant and all the problems of humanity will be solved.
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