On October 9, at a signing ceremony in Copenhagen, the car manufacturers Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Hyundai signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with organizations from the Nordic Countries on market introduction of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) and hydrogen refuelling infrastructure during the period 2014-2017. The MoU will catalyze a dialogue with public and private stakeholders in Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Denmark on securing relevant financing and support mechanisms for accelerating the market introduction.
Car manufacturers have invested significantly in the development of FCEVs in the past decade. Alongside, infrastructure companies have continuously developed hydrogen production and refuelling technologies and standards, in particular within the Nordic countries.
The results are promising, with FCEVs today providing the same long range and fast refuelling as conventional gasoline-powered vehicles. In 2009, several of the world’s leading car manufactures signed an agreement aiming for 2015 as a potential year for market introduction for FCEVs in regions where the necessary infrastructure for hydrogen refuelling is available.
National network organizations within Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark have actively worked for the establishment and planning of hydrogen refuelling stations since 2006, under the Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway Partnership (SHHP). The infrastructure companies HYOP AS (Norway), H2 Logic A/S (Denmark) and others have invested significantly since 2006 in the opening of several hydrogen refuelling stations within the countries and are actively preparing plans for countrywide networks beyond 2015.
The rich variety of renewable energy sources in the Nordic countries also provides a strong case for sustainable hydrogen production, which in turn can help storing and balancing even higher shares of fluctuating renewable electricity in the Nordic power grids.
Toward 2015, important steps and decisions have to be taken to ensure a successful market introduction. In particular, the engagement of private stakeholders such as national energy companies and investors is key to realize the hydrogen infrastructure roll-out. Governments, in turn, should provide stable long term market conditions and mechanisms to foster a coordinated roll-out. The Nordic MoU will catalyze a dialogue among the central stakeholders on these topics.
The MoU partners will, therefore, specifically endeavour to cooperate on:
- Joint pursuit of introduction of FCEVs and establishment of hydrogen infrastructure in the Nordic countries starting around year 2014 to 2017
- Advocating for establishment of necessary public financing and support mechanisms for the FCEVs and the hydrogen infrastructure
- Engagement of key national dealerships of the car manufacturers
- Engagement of key national energy and infrastructure companies
- The car manufacturers will endeavour for a market launch of the FCEVs in 2015 or later provided that sufficient infrastructure has been introduced
- The infrastructure companies will endeavour to introduce the hydrogen infrastructure starting around year 2014 to 2017
- The efforts of the Parties are subject to establishment of public financing and support mechanisms for the FCEVs and the hydrogen infrastructure
The MoU was signed in the presence of the Danish Minister for Transport and the Director of the International Energy Agency, Directorate of Sustainable Energy Policy and Technology at the 3GF conference in Copenhagen.
Mikael Sloth, Chairman Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway Partnership, stated, “For the Nordic organizations, the MoU is an important step towards ensuring our region as one among the first where hydrogen for transport is introduced to the market. This is important for meeting the Nordic long term targets for sustainable transport. Also, it can help create a strong and early home market for Nordic businesses and companies within hydrogen and fuel cell technology.”
Source: SHHP.
