Replacing Oil

Commuters in SIngapore will be able to breath just a little easier very soon. Working in conjuction with NTU and Beijing’s Tsinghua University it appears that Singapore will finally get it’s first public bus powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.

What surprises me isn’t that they have a hydrogen fuel cell bus, but that it’s the first. Singapore is one of the few places that recycles nearly 100% of its water. I would of thought that they would have entire fleets of electric vehicles in their public transport system. If this is the case and MIke at the Green Optomistic made a slight error in this post, please comment.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus In London

It’s been such a good week for cleaner energy I can’t decide where to begin so I’ll quickly mention the three best things I saw all week (week and a half?).

In London, hydrogen might get a chance as they are beginning construction on filling stations making it possible to drive cross country in the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles most americans have never heard of. They’re aiming for completion before the 2012 Olympics.

Investment in clean tech start ups is up over 80% according to the Cleantech Group and Deloitte.

It seems the good people of Los Angeles will not need to wait for feed in tariff legislation that has fizzled in the house. The Los Angeles Business Council (LABC) recently released a study on cost-effective approaches to local solar energy generation through solar feed-in tariffs (FiT). The same sort of legislation that has fostered unimaginable success for clean tech in Germany.

Did I miss any more excitement this week?

Perhaps in response to the popular, but all to limited 2008 FCX Clarity, Mercedes is showing their commitment to Hydrogen Fuel Cell driven vehicles. In the International Auto Show happening in Frankfurt the head of Mercedes-Benz explained that the automaker is about to enter a “low volume” production phase of the F-Cell.

Destined for mass production the Hydrogen powered Mercedes F-Cell

This limited production is eerily similar of Honda’s limited production and leasing of the FCX Clarity in Southern California last year. Only 200 cars were made available. It seems that Mercedes also wants to wait for an expansion of hydrogen filling stations before really cranking out the F-Cell. Hopefully they’ll begin building Home Energy Stations like Honda and Toyota as well.