US government fires up fuel cells with $130m in funding

The US Department of Energy (DoE) has earmarked $130m to fund research into hydrogen fuel cells as part of an ongoing programme to promote adoption of the technology.

The funding opportunity announcement, still subject to Congressional approval, would carve out funds for research projects, but would also provide money for projects demonstrating the use of fuel cells in distributed energy projects.

The Department would be providing the funding under President Bush's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative, which is a long-term plan to promote hydrogen fuel cells.

Hydrogen is essentially a storage medium because it takes energy to separate the chemical, which is then emitted when the hydrogen is used, leaving just water as a waste product. In the past, critics at the Sierra Club have criticised the project for not focusing on the original source of the energy, which can result in carbon emissions. For example, natural gas, coal and nuclear power can all typically provide the energy used to make hydrogen.

Hydrogen can be developed with no carbon footprint if it is produced using renewable energy, and other groups argued that greater efforts to bolster renewable energy capacity are required if the vision of a low carbon hydrogen economy is to be realised.

"There are no national renewable electricity standards requiring that a minimum level of electricity be generated by wind at a certain date," complained Christine Real de Azua, spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association. "Many of the states have them, but not the federal Government, and that would help to provide a long-term horizon that we currently don’t have."

The Department of Energy hopes to fund around 50 fuel cell projects with the money, which it said could rise $170bn when both public and private sector funding is considered. It also bought a hydrogen-powered Chevrolet Equinox vehicle for its fleet.