This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at La plataforma tecnológica europea del hidrógeno ya está en marcha

Its task will be to develop a strategy comprehensive and far-reaching on hydrogen and fuel cells

The European technology platform of hydrogen is already underway

Drafting QU01/04/2004

The creation of the European technology platform of the hydrogen and fuel cells was recently presented by the President, Romano Prodi, along with the Vice-President and Commissioner for energy and transport, Loyola de Palacio, and the Research Commissioner, Philippe Busquin. Its objective is to strengthen the position of the European Union as a main Member at the international level in the provision and application of technologies of hydrogen.

The efforts of the European Union for the development and consolidation of this technology are fragmented and scattered in several States members, often with overlapping activities. For this reason, the Commission decided the year past create a high-level group.

The prospective report of the Group received strong support in the major European Conference, "the hydrogen economy: a bridge to sustainable energy". The first recommendations of the Group include the Constitution of a "European Association on technology of hydrogen and fuel cells", directed by an Advisory Council.

The expected result of this technology platform is the development at Community level, of a comprehensive strategy and major on hydrogen and fuel cells. The Advisory Council of the technological platform is composed of 35 members representing the relevant stakeholders, and distinguished by its leadership in this sector.

The technological platform will have the opportunity to reach a consensus and leading a coherent European strategy in the field of research and development in the field of hydrogen and fuel cells, including public-private partnerships, the lighthouse projects, rules and regulations.

Thus, it is to build a critical mass and will bring together stakeholders to make Europe a player on first level and a stronger international partner.

Hydrogen: a vector energy clean

Like electricity, hydrogen is a clean energy vector. It can occur from a wide variety of primary energy sources. It is possible to Descripción fossil fuels through carbon sequestration, allowing the production of hydrogen from these traditional fuels with negligible emission of carbon. But, above all, the hydrogen produced from a series of renewable primary energy sources such as wind, biomass and solar energy is ideal for the gradual replacement of fossil energy, especially oil.

A specific application: fuel cells

The principle of the energy in a fuel cell conversion is clean and quiet: the hydrogen combines with oxygen from the air in the fuel cell to produce electricity and water. Electrochemical conversion processes are not constrained by the same physical laws of thermodynamics govern combustion processes and, therefore, offer superior performance. Fuel cells use hydrogen as fuel usually but also others, such as natural gas and methanol can be used.

In the long term fuel cells may serve to replace a large proportion of current energy systems in all fields, from the batteries of mobile phones to the propulsion of vehicles, passing through a centralised or decentralised electricity production. They also represent a potential change in the way we produce and consume energy.

The European Union supports fuel cells research since 1989, and the growing importance of this area is reflected in the substantial increase in financial aid to their research, from 8 billion euros in the program from 1988-1992, 150 million euros for 1999-2002.

Today, after a first invitation to tender for the sixth programme framework of research (FP6 2002-2006), the EU's contribution to these activities amounts to 95.000.000 euros; by 2006 two new tenders will be convened. EUR 300 million should be allocated to research on hydrogen and fuel within the framework of FP6 cells.

The "quick start" programme

In November 2003, the Commission also launched the "European initiative for growth" in order to accelerate economic recovery of the EU. The growth initiative includes a "quick start" program for public and private investment projects in infrastructure, networks and knowledge.

Its objective is to promote the creation of public-private partnerships, in cooperation with the European Investment Bank, in order to give a boost to the economy.

This program provides an important initiative of ten years for hydrogen-related research, production and use, with a total budget indicative of 2.8 billion euros of public and private funding. The technological platform can help implement this initiative, which has already received the political support of States members at the highest level.

The international framework

Also in June 2003, during the EU-US Summit, the hydrogen was cause for debate. In a joint statement with us, the EU undertakes to cooperate on a global scale in the acceleration of the development of the hydrogen economy.

This collaboration behind the objective of increasing the security of energy supply, increase the diversity of energy sources and improve the local and global air quality.

This international partnership includes especially to India and China, which will become major energy consumers, because their economies are growing rapidly. This represents a step forward in the construction of an international cooperation on technical, regulatory and policy matters related to the subject.

Among the members of the Advisory Council of the European technology platform of batteries and hydrogen fuel we have four Spaniards, Javier Brey, CEO of Abengoa Hynergreen; Caesar Dopazo, Director General of the Ciemat; Augustine Escardino, President of NTDA energy and Pablo Fernández Ruiz, director of the DG RTD energy of the European Commission.