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Today I'm making history. I'm driving from the Midlands to the Isle of Wight. Ahh, I
hear you say, nothing very historic in that. But just hang on a minute. I'm doing it in
the world's first commercially available hydrogen car. By the end of this year, we will be able
to lease Hyundai SUVs like this that are powered entirely by hydrogen. And the Isle of Wight
connection? Well that is the UK's biggest green energy collaboration project EcoIsland.
Now to get to the Isle of Wight I'm going to run entirely on hydrogen so I'm going to
need to top up which is why I'm in Nottingham where the University of Nottingham has bought
a mobile hydrogen refuelling station from ITM Power in Sheffield.
Gavin... Hello... Hi Quentin. Now you are a professior of Sustainable Energy here at
Nottingham University. Tell me about EcoIsland. 'cause that's a really significant project.
This is a huge set change in the hydrogen infrastructure development in the UK. On the
Isle of Wight they're looking at four times the size of this refueller providing sustainable
hydrogen for a local fleet of vehicles that the community can all use.
In the next few years, Hyundai will be rolling out ten thousand of these ix35 SUVs every
single year. ITM Power can pluck down hydrogen refuelling stations literally wherever you
want. So that means we won't just be getting cheaper, cleaner fuel, we'll also be able
to light and heat our houses with hydrogen. I'm off now to the Isle of Wight to have a
glimpse at the future. And what's it going to mean, this EcoIsland
project for the Isle of Wight? Well, there is the small question of 400 new jobs. 142
000 people here, that it'll directly influence, plus 60 000 homes. And let's not forget this
is a globally big deal, so much so that it's attracted the attention of the UK Minister
of Energy, who I'm going to pick up from the ferry terminal right now.
Hello... Good to meet you... Good to meet you, too. So perfidy to the orthodox: utterly
carbon neutral. You can fill it up in three minutes, like a petrol car. And how long will
it run for? 300 to 350 miles. And how expensive to run? On renewables, it's half the price
of petrol. Really. So convincing the consumers, you don't have to try and talk to them about
saving the planet. You just talk have to tell them, it's going to cost you only half the
price. Yeah, that's why I asked. And you can use platforms like this which is a conventional
Hyundai that would have had an internal combustion engine and put the fuel cell in it.
Welcome everybody. This is the first global EcoIsland summit where island communities
all over the world are coming together to find a long term solution to the greatest
human challenges of the day. We are deploying 100-kg-a-day refuelling station
and a 15-kg-a-day refuelling station on the island and we'll have its fleet of 20 vehicles,
including marine vehicles. The ITM Power technology is groundbreaking.
It's not just about just turning water into hydrogen and oxygen, it's about the portability
of it. I mean, they walked up here in the middle of the week with a couple of small
containers, they plug it in and they played. And here we have a generator unit that has
now got enough juice in it to run a fleet of say ten cars. And once you get to that
stage, you can put it anywhere. I believe this project deserves the support
which you've given it and it will certainly get my support, too. Thank you so much.
EcoIsland means that the Isle of Wight, by 2020 will be completely sustainable when it
comes to energy. And this is hugely important. I've just come out of the Minister's keynote
address, the Minister for Energy, John Hayes, MP, said that this is quite simply the most
advanced sustainability project in the entire world. And hydrogen is going to play a major,
major part. The Isle of Wight, we wish you well.