On 9 October in Copenhagen, representatives of Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Hyundai signed a Memorandum of understanding with organisations from the Nordic Countries on the market introduction of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) and hydrogen refuelling infrastructure during the period 2014-2017. The MoU is intended to catalyse a dialogue with public and private stakeholders in Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Denmark on securing relevant financing and support mechanisms for accelerating FCEVs’ market launch.
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 organisations within Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark have worked for the establishment and planning of hydrogen refuelling stations since 2006, under a 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 Nordic countries’ governments say their rich variety of renewable energy sources provides a strong case for sustainable hydrogen production, which in turn can help in storing and balancing higher shares of intermittent renewable electricity in the Nordic power grids.
The MoU partners will specifically endeavour to cooperate as follows:
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the joint pursuit of introduction of FCEVs and establishment of hydrogen infrastructure in the Nordic countries starting around 2014-2017;
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advocating the establishment of necessary public financing and support mechanisms for FCEVs and the hydrogen infrastructure;
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the engagement of key national dealerships of the car manufacturers;
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the engagement of key national energy and infrastructure companies;
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the car manufacturers will endeavour for a market launch of the FCEVs in 2015 or later provided that sufficient infrastructure has been introduced;
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the infrastructure companies will endeavour to introduce the hydrogen infrastructure starting around year 2014 to 2017;
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the efforts of the parties are subject to the establishment of public financing and support mechanisms for 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’s Directorate of Sustainable Energy Policy and Technology, at the 3GF conference in Copenhagen.
