IEA report underlines major challenges to hydrogen economy 

The IEA study 'Prospects for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells' highlights the need for enormous private and public investments in research if the hydrogen economy is to take off. Under the best conditions, 30% of the global stock of vehicles could be powered by hydrogen fuel cells by 2050. But if these conditions are not met, the report states, "hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles are unlikely to reach the critical mass that is needed for mass market uptake".

In the next few decades, there needs to be a three to tenfold reduction in the cost of hydrogen production and a ten to fiftyfold reduction in the costs of fuel cells. Trillions of dollars will need to be spent to develop widespread use of these technologies. Currently government spending on hydrogen and fuel cell research amounts to around 1 billion dollars in the IEA member countries.

The report recommends continued international co-operation on R&D and warns that deployment of hydrogen infrastructure at this point would be premature.

Recently, several MEPs presented a Green Hydrogen Charter urging the EU to mobilise all forces to shift to a hydrogen economy by 2025 (see EurActiv 13 Sept 2005). The Commission has set up a European Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Technology Platform (HFP) to accelerate the development of hydrogen and fuel based energy systems.