Posted on: Sunday, April 27, 2003

EDITORIAL
Iceland has lesson for sunny Hawai'i

It was worth a chuckle to read that the tiny nation of Iceland has opened one of the world's few retail filling stations for hydrogen-powered vehicles and ... just about nobody came.

It turns out that you can build a hydrogen filling station, but if no one in your nation of some 280,000 souls drives a hydrogen-powered car, well, it gets pretty lonely.

Actually, one car did fill up: a prototype Mercedes van. And there are a handful of hydrogen-powered buses that will use the facility.

But the real lesson here — and it's one Hawai'i should be watching closely — is that the journey from here to energy independence must start somewhere. That's the point Iceland is attempting to make.

While there are prototype hydrogen stations elsewhere, including Japan and California, Iceland is seen as a likely prospect for testing this new technology for two reasons: Its government is firmly behind the move to hydrogen power, and it has abundant renewable energy (geothermal and hydropower) that can be used to make the hydrogen fuel.

One of the key issues facing all involved in the hydrogen revolution is that it takes power to make power. Simply burning large amounts of fossil fuel to make hydrogen fuel makes little sense.

Hawai'i, which has several projects under way already aimed at developing hydrogen power, should be watching the Iceland experiment closely.

The Islands also have abundant sources, or at least potential sources, of renewable energy that could be used to produce hydrogen fuel. These include wind power, solar, ocean-thermal and, of course, geothermal.

Rather than wait for someone else to develop, prove and commercialize this technology, Hawai'i should join its chilly friends to the north and be leaders in the hydrogen revolution.