Publication Date:04-June-2005
09:37 AM US Eastern Timezone 
Source:Mainichi Daily News

KAWASAKI -- Green Energy Adventure, a group of environmentally conscious Kawasaki residents, are about to embark on a circumnavigation of Iceland in a vehicle powered by a clean energy fuel cell they made themselves.

GEA hopes to use the trip to show how efficient next-generation clean energies can be, while also seeing just how far they will be able to go.

"There are still many people who doubt whether fuel cells can be an efficient form of energy," Kenji Banba, a GEA member, says. "We'll use the cell as much as we can and find out for ourselves just how far we can go."

Fuel cells are powered by a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. Fuel cells are clean because they do not emit harmful gases such as nitrogen oxide. Expectations are high that fuel cells will eventually become a clean form of efficient alternative energy.

GEA will use a German-made motor tricycle powered by a fuel cell. The tricycle can also be powered by pedaling.

GEA will start its trek in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik on June 11. The team will travel along the coast around the island country before finishing back in the capital on June 25.

GEA's tricycle will be accompanied by a support team in a regular car and the five drivers of the revolutionary vehicle and those backing them up will camp out along the trip. They will power their camp with solar and wind power generators.

GEA chose Iceland because it is a country well known for promoting natural and clean energies.

In 1990, GEA was founded after Banba flew a solar-powered airplane across the continental United States -- a trip of some 4,000 kilometers.

GEA has seven members, who travel around to elementary schools across Japan promoting next-generation energies and fuel cells. While in Iceland, GEA will set up a satellite link between elementary schools in Reykjavik and Yokohama.