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The government often assumes the public are sceptical about green fuels, and makes planning decisions accordingly. However, new research shows that this is often not the case, and the public would actually like to be more involved in these strategy decisions.
Hydrogen is hot property at the moment, with a number of green tech initiatives making use of its non-polluting benefits -- for example the Honda's FCX Clarity (pictured above) or the Mazda Premacy HRE.
The in-depth piece of research (it should be, it cost £405,400) from the University of Salford investigated hydrogen production and consumption sites in Wales, Teesside and London, to find the true opinion of government agencies, industry and, crucially, the public.
As well as this, the team also undertook a £120,000 project to investigate the opinion on potential hydrogen use in Norwich, Sheffield and Southampton, where there currently are no hydrogen developments.
"Many policy makers assume that the public are ill-informed about, and resistant to, measures to prevent climate change and, as a result, tend to exclude them when developing policy," says sociologist Professor Rob Flynn, co-author of the research.
"Through systematic research we’ve discovered that this is not the case. Many people see hydrogen technology as an opportunity to regenerate their communities, reduce carbon emissions and live more sustainably. They want to be involved from the start so that any concerns or suggestions can be taken into account."
Now that they've found this out, the team have been given a further half a million pounds to try and develop ways for the government to better integrate these opinions.
"We’ll be using 'citizens' panels' which allow a representative section of the public to tell scientists and politicians what they think and ask them questions. That way, when a hydrogen energy strategy is produced it will be with the informed views of the public taken into account," says Flynn.
Although this research is important, and will pay off in the future, we can't help thinking what that million pounds could have done if put into a hydrogen production facility instead.
02 January 2008 11:18am
Hmmm, as I recall my science, producing hydrogen requires the INPUT of energy, usually electricity, to produce the hydrogen from water. So - for using hydrogen to be "green" the electricity used to produce it must also be "greener" than the alternative fuel. Thus, it is possible that a hybrid car (petrol/electric) that uses existing technologies well (e.g. petrol power on limited occasions and to charge battery, regenerative braking to recover energy) could be a lot greener and easier to get into the market than a hydrogen powered car.
Hydrogen is a nice idea, once somebody has cracked how to provide very "green" energay to produce it!
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