AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.03.2003, Blaðsíða 35

place of fossil fuels.
In the late seventies, chemistry pro-
fessor Bragi Árnason began intro-
ducing his ideas on how hydrogen
might be used as an energy con-
ductor, particularly in powering
vehicles. Few people supported
these ideas and everybody calcu-
lated they would not be economi-
cal. But with the passing of time,
these attitudes have changed and
many people would now like to be
in his shoes, as the lcelandic
"hydrogen society” is within sight.
An lcelandic company, NÝorka, has
been founded to carry out the
plans for adopting hydrogen as a
power source. Many bodies played
a part in establishing this company,
both from lceland and abroad. The
European Union has also given
financial support to this develop-
ment and the first stage, the run-
ning of three hydrogen buses, is
about to be carried out. The first
hydrogen delivery station for vehi-
cles is also being built at Grjótháls
in Reykjavík, among the first in
the world.
What could be the future of the
hydrogen adventure? The people in
charge at lcelandic NÝorka are
moderately optimistic because
these first steps have to be fairly
successful for the project to contin-
ue. Much depends on the develop-
ment of technology for the making
of chemical transmitters and the
storage of hydrogen. At the present
time, vehicles using hydrogen are
more expensive to make as they
are not mass-produced like vehi-
cles powered with fossil fuel. But if,
and it is a large if, everything turns
out the best way, then hydrogen
cars will be a common sight on
lcelandic roads. And in the future,
perhaps after a decade or so, ships
will also be powered by hydrogen.
This future vision of an lcelandic
Hydrogen Society, where the ener-
gy sources are from within the
country and renewable, has cap-
tured world attention. Who knows -
lceland may become famous for
something other than the Sagas
and cod. ■
Einfölduð mynd af efnarafala sem notaður er til að knýja ökutæki.
A diagrammatic picture of an energy convertor used to power vehicles.