US Energy Sec. Abraham pushing international approach to hydrogen energy development
By an OGJ correspondent
PARIS, Apr. 28 -- US Sec. of Energy Spencer Abraham Monday called for international collaboration in advanced research and development that will support the deployment of hydrogen energy technologies.
Abraham announced the initiative for an International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy during a presentation to the International Energy Agency ministerial meeting in Paris.
"International cooperation is key to achieving hydrogen and fuel cell program goals," Abraham said. "Partnerships that leverage scarce resources, develop technology standards, and foster private-public technology and infrastructure collaboration can more easily overcome the technological and institutional barriers that inhibit the development of a cost-competitive, standardized, widely accessible and safe hydrogen economy."
He advocated a global "sharing of ideas and coordination of activities," towards "a hydrogen future."
The US advocates development activities so that "a participating country's consumers will have the practical option of purchasing a competitively priced hydrogen power vehicle, and be able to refuel it near their homes and places of work, by 2020," Abraham said.
A growing number of countries have committed to accelerate the development of hydrogen energy technologies in order to improve their energy, economic, and environmental security, he said.
For example, the US has committed $1.7 billion for the first 5 years of a long-term research and development program for hydrogen, hydrogen infrastructure, fuel cells, and hybrid vehicle technologies. The European Union has committed up to 2 billion euros to long-term research and development of renewable and hydrogen energy technologies.
Most of IEA's Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries face undesirable risk to the reliability of their energy sectors and environmental quality by relying heavily upon imported petroleum, unstable energy prices, and aging electricity and natural gas infrastructures, he said.