Cool and Clean

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Take a short drive out of iceland's capital, Reykjavik, and you will see why they call this the land of fire and ice. From under the snow-covered lava fields that make up the bulk of the country's 30,000-sq.-mi. land mass, hot water from the island's volcanic underbelly boils and surges to the surface in the form of steaming geysers and hot springs. This inexhaustible source of energy is a godsend to Iceland's 276,000 inhabitants, who meet 90% of their needs from geothermal and hydroelectric power. That gives Icelanders a marvelous opportunity: they are now trying to eliminate the use of fossil fuels entirely and make Iceland the first country in the world to get all of its energy from clean, renewable sources. If they succeed, they may—by the choice of their fuel technology—show the rest of the planet how to fight global warming.

The goal in this tiny North Atlantic nation is to create the first hydrogen economy. Its centerpiece will be the fuel cell, the versatile little power plant that combines hydrogen with oxygen from the air and gives off only energy and pure water vapor. The good news about hydrogen is that it can be derived from water, which is a virtually unlimited source. The bad news is that the electrolysis process used to extract hydrogen requires large amounts of energy. Iceland's great advantage in this field is that it can provide the necessary energy with its nonpolluting sources.

This month, Iceland New Energy, a international consortium that includes Norway's Norsk Hydro, Shell Hydrogen, Daimler Chrysler and Iceland's energy holding company Vistorka, officially launched two projects aimed at promoting hydrogen as an energy source. One four-year program will introduce three buses powered by hydrogen fuel cells into Reykjavik's city transport fleet. The first two years of the project will focus on environmental research, building up infrastructure and staff training. The buses, produced by Daimler Chrysler at $1.1 million apiece, are scheduled to go into regular service at the end of next year, spearheading a gradual switch of the nation's 180,000 vehicles and 2,500 fishing vessels to hydrogen power.

The second program, a joint venture between California's DCH Technology and Skeljungur, Shell's Iceland subsidiary, will begin replacing conventional chemical batteries with fuel cells to meet special needs—for example, to power mobile homes or houses and businesses that are not on the regular electric grid. During an a four- to six-month trial period, the partners will distribute fuel cells for free to see how they perform. If that goes well, the cells will be mass produced and sold at a price determined by the size of the market.

For the mobile fuel cells, refills will be available from hydrogen canisters at Shell service stations scattered around the country. The buses will start with one central fuel depot in Reykjavik, but as hydrogen usage spreads to other vehicles, more fueling facilities will be integrated into the Shell network. "Fossil fuels are only 100 years old," says Iceland New Energy general manager Jon Bjorn Skulason. "They may last another 50 and then it could be the turn of hydrogen for 150 years after that." By demonstrating that an entire economy—albeit a small, isolated one—can free itself of fossil fuel dependency, Iceland could be a source of hope and inspiration in a world threatened by climate chaos.