Posted on: Friday, June 7, 2002
Looking forward to hydrogen-fueled Isles
It wasn't beam-me-up teleportation, but nonetheless a breakthrough in the battle to gain independence from fossil fuels: A car that runs on a hydrogen-powered fuel cell has survived the cross-country trip from San Francisco to Washington.
DaimlerChrysler engineer Wolfgang Weiss drove the $1 million NECAR 5 ( New electric Car, Fifth Generation) for 3,262-miles in 15 days. "It runs much better than we believed," Weiss remarked.
Although there were a few glitches, overall the technology proved it can make it in the real world. It's still a work in progress, and it'll take years to produce affordable fuel-cell vehicles. But it sure would be great if oil-dependent Hawai'i, which is grappling with how to curb soaring gasoline prices, was on the vanguard of fuel-cell research.
A fuel cell is an electro-chemical device that generates electricity via chemical reactions. It's nonpolluting, durable and quieter than internal-combustion engines.
A public-private hydrogen fuel-cell project is already planned for Kaka'ako and would focus on creating hydrogen extracted from biofuels and methane found in the sea floor.
And the Ocean Thermal Laboratory at Keahole on the Big Island is working on extracting hydrogen from regular ocean water. There, scientists are using deep-ocean water in conjunction with warmer surface water to produce electricity.
Indeed, ocean-bound Hawai'i is the ideal environment for developing alternatives to fossil fuels.
Iceland has already got a big jump on us, though. It's pushing to be the world's first hydrogen-based economy. In the face of continuing instability in the Middle East, Iceland is well on its way to becoming the "Kuwait of the North." Hydrogen-powered cars are expected to hit the Icelandic market in a couple of years.
Scientists say it's easier to introduce a new technology in a small society because if it goes wrong, it's less difficult to fix. So why should Hawai'i be any different from Iceland? We've got all the right stuff to become a hydrogen-based economy and we should.
