Iceland Wants to be First Oil-Free Nation

Iceland Wants to be First Oil-Free Nation

World's first hydrogen fuel station,  installed in Iceland in 2003

The U.S. takes pride in being a nation of firsts, but it is likely to lose out in the race—if  it can be called a race—to establish the world’s first hydrogen-based transportation system.

The first market-ready fuel cell cars may well come from the U.S.--General Motors has promised retail models by 2010. But it is unlikely, to say the least, that a nationwide hydrogen fueling system will be ready to greet them.

That first is likely  to go either to China or Iceland, and the small island nation seems to have the lead right now.

Icelanders, who rely on expensive imports for their petroleum products,  have been gradually cutting back on the use of fossil fuels for half a century already. They use the waterfalls, geysers and hot springs that abound in their volcanic country  to provide electricity and hot water.

Now, in a land where gasoline runs about $8 a gallon,  people are  looking  to hydrogen to fuel their cars and trucks. 

The country has become an important test-bed for fuel-cell electric car makers, with hydrogen-fueled vehicles from Toyota, Chrysler, Daimler and General Motors all plying the streets of Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital.

In an interesting piece about  the tiny nation’s burgeoning hydrogen system on CNN.com, retired University of Iceland Professor Bragi Arnason says his country is the ideal place “to create the world’s first hydrogen economy” because it has a wealth of water and electricity, both necessary to produce hydrogen fuel.

As for China, well, there’s not much talk about it, but the world’s most populous country is just beginning to develop private transportation and still lacks a nationwide fueling infrastructure.

Top executives at GM, one of the biggest carmakers in China, nod knowingly at the suggestion that it might be a prime location to push for development of a comprehensive network of hydrogen fueling stations.

That’s because there’s no existing gasoline infrastructure to disrupt and because, as one GM executive said in a recent not-for-quote conversation with Green Car Advisor, “it has a political structure where, if the government says to do something, it gets done, no questions asked.”

Iceland might have a big edge, though.

China is huge and it would take hundreds of billions of dollars and lots of time to stretch a hydrogen delivery system the length and breadth of the Middle Kingdom.  Arnason figures Iceland could be fully served with a minimum of just 15 hydrogen stations, five of them in the capital.

Arnason told CNN that it would take only a 4% increase in Iceland's energy production to make all the hydrogen the country’s 300,000 residents need to power their vehicles.

He also predicted that once Iceland’s cars run on hydrogen, the country’s large fishing fleet will follow suit and that Iceland could be fossil fuel free by 2050 and serve as a prototype for the rest of the world to follow.

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.