EMEA News
UK Hydrogen Ferry Called "Wasteful Vanity Project"
The future of a UK ferry powered by a hydrogen fuel cell is in doubt, with some politicians dismissing it as a "wasteful vanity project," the BBC reports.
The ship, Hydrogenesis, has been moored since an initial six-month trial last year.
"In my view it's been a wasteful white elephant," said City Councillor Richard Eddy, a longtime opponent of the project.
Bristol City Council commissioned the ferry in 2010 at a cost of £225,000 ($363,000).
Richard Rankin of Bristol Hydrogen Boats Ltd, the consortium that designed, built, and operated the vessel, said it would be "viable" if there was a hydrogen station "in place".
"We had to rent a filling station for six months at a cost of £59,000 ($65,000)," he said.
"But we're converting the ferry to run on bottled hydrogen and will be running it next year."
Bristol Mayor George Ferguson, who was elected in 2012, said that if he had been in office when the project was proposed, he would "never have begun such an expensive publicly-funded experiment with a disappointingly brief life," according to local newspaper the Bristol Post.
"Having said that, the hydrogen ferry did serve Bristol well in adding to our credentials as a candidate for European Green Capital, and for that we should be grateful," Ferguson said.
"Against my own predictions, the technology did prove to work reliably and safely, and to deliver zero emissions."
Ferguson said there is no prospect of the city council funding the project in the future, leaving it to the ferry operator and other interested parties to restart the ferry.
In June 2013, Bristol Hydrogen Boats said the vessel was attracting interest from "foreign official visitors, journalists and dignitaries."
