Hertz Iceland recently became the first company to offer fully hydrogen-powered cars for rent. The first hydrogen fuel station opened in Reykjavik in 2003, which makes filling up one of Hertz’s three converted Toyota Prius cars a breeze.
For those who want the hydrogen experience but who don’t want to drive, the first hydrogen powered commercial vessel started sailing the Icelandic waters in April. The Elding boat offers whale watching tours for EUR 43 (USD 66) a trip and has got good reviews. Not only is the hydrogen-powered engine environmentally friendly, but it is easy to shut down, which allows whale watchers to enjoy the sounds of whales swimming and blowing, something a diesel engine on most boats does not allow.
The hydrogen powered ships and cars are just a few ways that Iceland is using to become a carbon-neutral nation. Already, the country derives 80 per cent of its electricity from hydropower projects and most of the rest of its electricity from geothermal projects. Transportation, including cars and fishing boats, remain the largest challenge to Iceland’s becoming carbon neutral and if the Elding and the converted Prius are a success, Iceland could be well on its way to achieving its environmental goals.
We need to save gas and we these hydrogen cars for rental we are happy. There are many green technologies today that we can use to save fuel also. Among them are water cars or cars running on water. There are many companies claiming they can do something useful with HHO gas and hydrogen. We can check them out if we want to save some money every month.
I’d never thought there’s already a hydrogen cars on year 2003 especially in Reykjavik. Using hydrogen cars is very practical and economical.
we can save money and vital resources with new technology like this
Plenty of energy here to produce hydrogen.
Kudos to Hertz Iceland for being the first to offer hydrogen-powered cars for rent. I believe it is a really wise decision, and I hope that other car rental companies will follow this move.
And not a minute too soon, with gas prices on the rise again. We need alternatives.
It’s still very expensive..
Hydrogen as a general fuel for vehicles is still in it’s infancy but to realise that given the right finacial incentives any technology can be brought into everyday use you only have to watch a 1970’s film and watch people running around looking for a phone box (what no mobile?). AWR says it’s still expensive. Maybe but consider this.85% of the worlds current hydrogen production is used to clean sulphur from gasoline! Could we not use that ‘free’ hydrogen as gree fuel instead of cleaning a carbon one?
Great to hear about this environmentally friendly hydrogen powered ship. Is there a cost in pollution in actually producing the hydrogen though?
Ann:
It depends. Pure hydrogen needs to be manufactured which takes some kind of energy source. From what I’ve seen about it, an environmentally friendly option could be used to produce the power (wind, solar) or an unfriendly one (coal). It does burn clean so there won’t be as much pollution from using it (e.g. in a ship or car engine).