Carmaker Volkswagen has revealed plans to develop a solar-hydrogen filling station as part of its continuing research into the use of fuel cells.

The station will be installed at the company's research centre in Lower Saxony in Germany and has been co-developed with the German solar energy company Solvis.

The new facility will allow for advanced testing of fuel cell powered vehicles that can also generate energy from sunlight, reports Fuel Cell Works. The station will use solar panels to produce enough electricity to release the hydrogen from water using electrolysis.

Hartmut Martens, head of fuel cell development at Volkswagen, said: "Hydrogen-powered fuel cell drive will offer the greatest amount of potential for greenhouse-gas reduction.

"Especially if such hydrogen is produced by way of a regenerative solution with the help of solar or wind energy. So we are paving the way for the future."

Volkswagen eventually hopes that increasing the amount of onboard hydrogen will eventually lead to vehicles capable of travelling long distances without re-fuelling.


Ÿ Adfero Ltd