In a bid to realize the promise of hydrogen fuel cells as a clean energy source for Europe, the European Union (EU) last week announced €140 million ($195 million) in available investments for research in energy technology.

Under the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative (JTI), the EU will be seeking research proposals in five application areas—transportation and refuelling infrastructure; hydrogen production and distribution; stationary power generation; and early markets and market creation.

The funding, made up of €71.3 million from the European Commission matched by contributions from the private sector, is part of an estimated €1 billion ($1.4 billion) that the EU plans to invest in fuel cell development by 2014.

In contrast, US Energy Sec. Steven Chu’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year slashed some $100 million in funding for fuel cell vehicle research, saying that the technology is still far off. The Obama administration, however, did provide $41.9 million in economic stimulus for fuel cell commercialization in April, with another $72.4 million from the private sector.

"The industry has been thriving to create this partnership for a long time. It is important to join forces to overcome the technical and economic hurdles to market-introduction of these technologies...,” Gijs van Breda Vriesman, chairman of the public-private undertaking, said.

“We are just in time to grasp the chance to make Europe a leader in these technologies," Breda Vriesman added.

The EU said the funding will help bring fuel cell and hydrogen technologies to the market earlier by two to five years, and “should foster the use of hydrogen-fuelled buses and fuel cell vehicles” due to breakthrough research.

A total of 29 project areas that will be funded will also look into fuel cell applications, from “green” stationary power stations and homes to portable applications such as laptops.

A fuel cell, as a kind of battery, uses hydrogen as its fuel and creates electricity through an electrochemical process. However, the technology is still expensive due to high component costs and is also facing durability concerns. Hydrogen also does not exist in its pure form in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The joint EU program for fuel cell and hydrogen development started in October, 2008. Successful applicants in the research program, the second of its kind in the EU, will be announced in March, 2010.


-  Eric Dorente

---

Source:

¹ http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1076...