PureSHETLAND is presently developing a hydrogen fuel cell car to compete in the 2006 Shell Eco Marathon in Nogaro, in France, in May.
The aim of the Eco marathon is to travel the greatest possible distance on as little fuel as possible. The competition regularly attracts over 200 entries from across Europe.
The project is a being carried out as a cooperative venture between the innovative PURE hydrogen enterprise, in Unst, Shetland Composites and pupils from the Anderson High School, in Lerwick.
SDT chairman councillor Josie Simpson said the trust was keen to support the educational and forward thinking motives behind the project.
He said: "The links that have been established with the Anderson High School, together with PureSHETLAND's encouragement of youngsters to become involved and engage in the industry, is a significant and forward-thinking move.
"To instil awareness in youngsters that we need to move away from oil dependency and look at developing alternatives that could, in the long-term, run as commercially viable businesses is a significant achievement in itself."
PureSHETLAND's entry will be the first ever to use renewably produced hydrogen as a fuel, creating no pollutant emissions during hydrogen generation. This is achieved using wind turbines to generate the power needed to produce hydrogen via the process of electrolysis.
PURE electrical engineer David Sutherland said the trust's sponsorship would allow them to source the best available technology for the car.
Mr Sutherland said: "With this tremendous level of support, we can put maximum effort into producing the PureSHETLAND car and entering the French marathon."
The light weight body of the car has been designed and constructed by Lerwick firm Shetland Composites, incorporating a streamlined design.
The current world record is 15,212 miles per gallon by Zurich based PAC-car II, using hydrogen as fuel. However, the hydrogen used was not generated from a renewable resource and therefore still produced pollutant emissions.