Iceland claims to have the largest number of hydrogen cars in Europe

Iceland has claimed to have the largest number of hydrogen cars in Europe as the Ford retailer Brimborg brought more hydrogen cars, namely 22 cars, to the country as a test ground.

According to a statement from the Icelandic New Energy reaching here, the fuel company and the Ford retailer jointly announced further steps in demonstrating hydrogen as fuel for transport.

The hydrogen is made from water and renewable power from local resources. Ten Ford Focus Fuel Cell Vehicles will be integrated into the traffic in Reykjavik beginning this month. These are all used fuel cell vehicles and the goal of this project 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 world’s major car manufacturers' announcement of producing more fuel cell vehicles," said the statement.

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 imported petrol or fossil 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.

With a total of 22 H2 vehicles in service in Reykjavik, the Shell Hydrogen provides the hydrogen supply for the recharge of H2 vehicles.

These H2 vehicles are mainly for rent to companies in Reykjavik for staff that need to attend to various business on the move. All of them have number plates that begin with H2.

The near term goal of the Icelandic 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," said the statement.

By Xuefei Chen, People's Daily Online.