Iceland Opens Hydrogen Filling Station to Public
ICELAND: November 29, 2007
REYKJAVIK - Iceland made its hydrogen filling station, the world's first
when it opened to serve buses four years ago, available for use by private
cars on Wednesday.
This is the latest step in a pilot project conceived by Icelandic New
Energy, a company backed by the government, academics and private firms,
that aims to have up to 40 hydrogen cars on the roads of the capital by the
end of 2009.
"The future prospects for hydrogen are very bright," Jon Bjorn Skulason,
general manager of Icelandic New Energy, told Reuters in an interview.
"There is no other fuel in the world that fills the demands that fossil fuel
fills today."
Iceland, rich in geothermal and hydroelectric power sources that allow
hydrogen to be produced without pollution, aims to become independent of
fossil fuels by mid-century.
The filling station opened in 2003 but initially only served the three
hydrogen buses involved in a separate pilot.
Now it will be available to power 10 new Toyota Prius hydrogen cars that
VISTORKA, a shareholder in Icelandic New Energy, delivered to three
Icelandic companies on Wednesday.
Three of those 10 went to Hertz car rental, which will offer tourists to
Reykjavik the chance to rent and drive hydrogen cars for the first time.
VISTORKA is owned by a consortium of Icelandic corporations. (Reporting by
Kristin Arna Bragadottir, editing by Anthony Barker)
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
|