Europe speeds fuel cell, hydrogen production

[jpak]

http://media.cleantech.com/2920/europe-speeds-fuel-cell-hydrogen-production

The European Commission has adopted regulation to set up the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (JTI), a public-private joint technology initiative with sights on making the technologies commercially available between 2010 and 2020.

The Commission is expected to fund €470 million of the project from the Seventh Framework Programme for six years and anticipates matched contributions from the industry.

This news comes closely following the U.S. Department of Energy making $130 million available for the development and use of fuel cells for automotive, stationary, and portable power applications (see U.S. DOE to put $130M into advanced fuel cells).

According to an EU-funded project, scenario analysis indicates that hydrogen, if introduced with suitable policy measures, could reduce the total oil consumption by the road transport sector by 40 per cent between now and 2050. In addition, the findings also indicated that by 2050, CO2 savings from road transport of up to 50 per cent compared to peak levels are possible.

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