Financial crisis delays Iceland's hydrogen transportation project
by Sebastian Blanco on Jul 1st 2009 at 12:43PM 
Iceland is a gorgeous place. Just take a look at these Flickr submissions from the island. The country's finances aren't quite so pretty these days, and the reality of the financial crisis is dramatically slowing down the country's attempted shift to a hydrogen economy. Iceland has been testing hydrogen-powered vehicles for years, and the first hydrogen fueling station opened there in late 2007. One reason for the move to hydrogen is that the island country can fairly easily use geothermal energy to make hydrogen from water. The New York Times says that the shift to get all ground transportation vehicles and some boats to hydrogen power "have been set back at least 10 years and may have to be altered to allow for electric cars." The problem? The cost of fuel cells and the down world economy. A professor of chemistry at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik told the Times:
In the past years, teams from all the big car manufacturing companies visited us and said they intended to market fuel cell-powered hydrogen cars shortly after 2010. Of course, because of the current world crisis, there will be a delay.
Those of you rooting for electric vehicles to win out over H2, don't forget that the Mitsubishi iMiEV is currently undergoing testing in Iceland. Of course, a busted economy can sink all ships, so don't enjoy the schadenfreude too much.
[Source: New York Times]
Photo by Neate Photos. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alan 1:06PM (7/01/2009)
Maybe the laws of physics will prevail after all!
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paulwesterberg 3:18PM (7/01/2009)
Iceland is a best case scenario for hydrogen(or bevs), it is a small island nation that has access to clean renewable geothermal energy production.
If hydrogen could be made to work anywhere in the world it would be Iceland.
If it cant be made to work in Iceland then the technology will never be feasible anywhere.
gorr 1:13PM (7/01/2009)
If they are victim of the economic crisis, then why are they not saving it with new products and methods ?? Journalist said that they must do nothing for 10 more years..
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Tim 1:22PM (7/01/2009)
Are you TRULY worried about “global warming”? Do you want sustained "green" R&D projects in the US? Do you want the US to lead the world in “green” technologies?
How will this be possible after the US follows Iceland down the path into financial oblivion?
The private “Fed” has allowed corrupt US politicians to run up over $56.4 Trillion in public debt while pandering special interests including the NeoCon’s global military empire & Democrat-Socialists social redistribution.
Your share of the public debt is currently $184,000 which equals $736,000 per household.
How long can we keep this up before we become the Weimar Republic?
http://www.thenewamerican.com/history/european/1056 (look ma, no wiki)
We can NEVER dig out because the Fed has replaced the free market that once made us the world leader with crony capitalism which has bankrupted us, yet the Fed has NEVER been publicly audited.
http://www.pgpf.org/
Call you your representative and DEMAND that they co-sponsor and Support HR1207 in the house and S604 in the Senate without amendments so that we can finally audit the Fed and find out where the $Trillions of OUR debt created in the last few months is going.
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Sean 1:46PM (7/01/2009)
Tim,
From the National Debt Clock, the current national debt today (7/1/09) is:
$ 11,365,085,092,292.99
The estimated population of the United States is 306,469,272
so each citizen's share of this debt is $37,083.93.
It's about 1/5th of what you say. That said, it's still pretty bad. Maybe the government will simply add a "carbon tax" by reaching into your savings account for your share.
There, how's that for rattling someone's cage.
Tim 1:55PM (7/01/2009)
The debt clock doesn't include unfunded gov't liabilities.
Follow this link for a more clear picture of the debt-hole these US Statists dug for us:
http://www.pgpf.org/
If only they had honored their oath of office and obeyed the Constitution.
(or we can simply pay no attention to the rising public debt and keep on fiddling for new toys which we won’t be able to afford anyway.)
Throwback 4:21PM (7/01/2009)
Tim, the oath does not say to "obey" the constitution. It says to "protect and defend", which leaves room for interpretation. One man's "defence" is another's "trample"
Serge 2:18PM (7/01/2009)
Only a small reminder that common sense does prevail in certain quarters.
Now what the should look into is turning all that geothermal energy into electricity to fuel BEVs and PHEVs. Being an island nation, range is not much of a concern there.
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David Martin 7:04PM (7/01/2009)
Serge said:
'Being an island nation, range is not much of a concern there.'
That is half true, or maybe 90%
The demography of Iceland is weird, and 80% of people live in Reykjavik, so EV's might do them.
OTOH it presumably can get pretty cold, and EV's do not perform at their best in the cold, so they might really need to go to Altairnano's lithium titanium technology, which has great characteristics for cold weather.
It's a different kettle of fish outside of the capital, where there is a lot of very rugged terrain in between nothing much, and if they can be made to work at any reasonable cost fuel cell vehicles would be ideal here.
I don't really understand why some here are so down on fuel cells.
Sure, EV's are going to do most of the job of urban commuting, but if they can minimise precious metal use then fuel cells might be good for other environments.
And they are working very hard towards this goal, led by able people in major corporations like Toyota and Honda.
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Anonymouse 7:51PM (7/01/2009)
"OTOH it presumably can get pretty cold"
You'd be surprised. Don't forget that Iceland is on the tail end of the Gulf Stream. The average January temperature in the coastal lowlands (where most people live) is around 0C. It's winter climate is fairly similar to Iowa's, but wetter. Its summers are cooler than Iowa's, though. Which is actually a good thing for EVs. ;)
Also, FCVs have their own problems with cold. And they have batteries, too.
Derk McRockgroin 8:40PM (7/01/2009)
The Tesla Roadster has been tested in Northern Sweden, and has a heater that keeps the batteries warm in a cold climate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5kkU23bfEc&feature=related
Chris M 10:51PM (7/01/2009)
Actually, fuel cells have an even bigger problem with the cold, they can't operate at all at below freezing temperatures. For that reason, H2 FC cars use batteries to run things until the fuel cells can be warmed enough to operate.
Range really isn't a problem here, as many EVs have sufficient range to get from one end of the island to the other on a single charge.
I'm just glad that the Icelandic government is finally realizing that EVs are more efficient and a lot cheaper than H2FCVs, and will be in production and available starting next year. H2FCVs won't be available for the mass market until the costs can be brought waaaay down, which will take 6 years or more.
lazybones 3:50AM (7/02/2009)
Looking at the typical forecast it seems to get down to about -17c, So a Lith-Iron Phosphate would be the go. They can run down to -25c.
David Martin 5:35AM (7/02/2009)
Thanks for the informative comments guys.
I was being a bit lazy in not looking up the climate records for Iceland I assumed that the Gulf stream would keep it warmer than it's latitude would imply especially to the West where Reykjavik is located, but the Gulf stream can be fickle, and it is pretty annoying if you get a old snap for a week or so and your car won't start.
In Iceland's case this could be a fatal inconvenience in more remote regions, as a cold snap there would be really cold.
Dunno if most of you are aware that the Prius actually uses quite a fancy system to keep it''s battery to temperature - I did not save the details, and haven't had much luck Googling it.
If I were in the wilds of Iceland, I would still prefer the Altairnano battery, which is good for down to -60C - efficiency tails off rapidly as you approach the lower limits of operating temperature, so many other technologies are less suited to very cold regions.
It probably won't happen for reasons of economies of scale which would tend to standardise batteries used in cars, but for areas like Canada, Iceland, and Michigan dedicated low temperature batteries would be preferable.
Thanks for the informed comments of fuel cells, but as I said looking at the engineers who are still interested I am reluctant to write them off altogether, certainly in large trucks etc.
VanLeasing 4:38AM (7/08/2009)
I thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. i appreciate all of commenters and hope that you’ll continue to participate in the discussion on this blog.van leasing
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Noz 3:45PM (7/02/2009)
How about the concept of a bad economy ruining a run up to new technologies? What a concept. Of course it doesn't affect other industries now does it.
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