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Norway puts hydrogen-powered cars on the road

Norway is creating a network of hydrogen filling stations to power cars that run on fuel cells.

Porsgrunn is home to one of Norway's two hydrogen refueling stations.

Photo: Wessel Kok

From Oslo, where most Norwegians live, the nearest hydrogen filling station is about two hours away, first along a freeway, then down a smaller, winding highway and finally through the small city of Porsgrunn to the research and development center of the energy company StatoilHydro. So the Porsgrunn hasn 't done much to promote the use of hydrogen vehicles among the masses.

That 's due to change by May of 2009, when the first hydrogen fuel station in Oslo is scheduled to open, along with one in Drammen, 40 minutes south. Around the same time, a second station will be added in Stavanger, on the west coast, an eight-hour drive from Oslo.

By the end of next year, Norway 's hydrogen highway will link at least five stations to form a 360-mile (580-kilometer) corridor along which motorists can drive what many see as the cars of the future: vehicles powered by hydrogen.

The initiative may seem surprising coming from the world 's third-largest oil exporter. But hydrogen-powered vehicles produce no emissions other than harmless water vapor, and Norwegians are determined to demonstrate that these kinds of vehicles are not only possible but essential. We want to show that zero-emissions cars are already here, so we need to show them in use to develop the technology further and get the costs down," says Goril Andreassen of the non-profit group Zero, part of the HyNor national partnership pushing for hydrogen transportation. To solve the climate change problem and reduce emissions, we have to change from fossil fuels to zero emissions. We want businesses and the government to spend more money and take more responsibility to make that happen.

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