A number of commentators believe that green cars will, ultimately, run on hydrogen. As has been noted above, hydrogen powered vehicles would play an increasingly major role in greenpeace’s fossil free future, "Solar electric and solar hydrogen systems were assumed to .. meet 30% of fuel use in 2030 and 80% in 2100.".

A few companies are already working on the production of hydrogen. Its development is a long term prospect, "Sir John Cadogan, director of research at BP, said he was certain the technology to produce hydrogen fuel from water at a price that could compete with fossil fuels will ultimately be achieved."

A number of car manufacturers are working on prototype hydrogen cars. "In two or three years' time the first hydrogen powered cars will be road-tested. In two or three decades says the managing director of Mazda his company will be making hundreds of thousands of pollution free cars each year. Hydrogen is the fuel of the future he says." Mazda have produced .. "their first hydrogen powered prototype car, aimed mainly at commuters, the 988cc car has a range of 200 kilometres. However, frequent recharging of the batteries is only one of the major headaches for those working on the research."

There are two ways in which hydrogen can provide energy for cars. It .. "can be either burned in an internal combustion engine or combined with oxygen in a fuel cell."

There are a number of ways of generating hydrogen.

Natural gas can be used to provide hydrogen, "The cheapest source of hydrogen at present is natural gas ..."

Secondly, hydrogen can be obtained by passing an electric current through water. This technology was discovered a mere two decades ago, "Japanese scientists A Fujishima and K Honda demonstrated in 1972 that solar energy could be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The process involved converting solar energy into electricity and then passing it through water." All the sources of electricity mentioned above could be used to provide electricity to generate hydrogen. Fred pearce supports the construction of small-scale hydro-electric dams to generate hydrogen.

Thirdly, "Photolytic production of hydrogen can be carried out by the use of organic photosynthesizers. Bacteria or plant chloroplasts can achieve this, and in principle it could be a major source of hydrogen for transport: sunlight is free, water is common, and bacteria breed quickly."

The ecological damage caused by the generation of electricity for the production of hydrogen would be similar to that for battery driven cars which was outlined above. Solar power stations could either produce hydrogen on site or transmit electricity to a hydrogen production facility in an urban area. Some commentators suggest hydrogen should be produced in solar power stations in deserts. If this is the case then hydrogen would have to be transported either by lorries or pipelines.

Ted trainer has highlighted the absurdities of setting up solar power stations in tropical regions to produce hydrogen and then transporting the fuel to over-industrialized nations in temperate regions, "An integrated global solar electrical supply system might consist of many plants north and south of the equator to take account of the seasons. However, significant transportation costs could arise. It is 8,000 km from 15 degrees south of the equator to Britain. One form of transportation would be as liquid hydrogen. Liquefaction for transport in tankers would use energy equal to 30% of the energy in the gas, so that the overall energy efficiency of a liquid hydrogen system would be around 3.5%. Therefore to provide 24 million kwh of electrical energy per day in Europe would require collection of 685 million kwh in the form of solar energy. In a region averaging 6 kwh/m2/day this would require 114 millon square meters of solar collectors. More promising might be the generation of electricity at low latitudes and its transmission via very long high voltage cables, requiring only storage to supply night time demand."

Once again, the pollution released by the generation of electricity for hydrogen would be similar to the pollution released for the generation of electricity for battery driven cars, "As with electric vehicles, the level of CO2 emissions from hydrogen powered vehicles depends critically on the source of fuel."; "Liquid hydrogen produced from coal increases the CO2 equivalent emissions by 143%; whereas hydrogen from non-fossil fuels would reduce CO2 by 100%."

A number of commentators suspect that, in the short term, natural gas will succeed oil as the world’s primary fuel. It is believed this will pave the way for the creation of a hydrogen fuelled society. "First, and most imperative, is the necessary change from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Natural gas can be substituted for petroleum, and it releases far less damaging exhaust. Although its use would not finally solve our energy problems, the first step in the right direction would seem to be to turn to it as a substitute for other fuels. Transition from natural gas to hydrogen would then be possible by methods already projected by engineers, and hydrogen burns without any detrimental atmospheric emissions." One commentator believes a hydrogen based economy is not far off, "Soon after the turn of the century, an even more spectacular technology should be commonplace. We could be on the brink of running a hydrogen - rather than a mostly oil and coal - economy." Natural gas could play a vital role in the transition from conventional fossil fuelled socities to hydrogen powered societies for two reasons: firstly, the vast abundance of natural gas and, secondly, the ease with which natural gas can be replaced by biogas and hydrogen.

Correspondingly, it is likely that fossil fuelled cars will be replaced by natural gas fuelled cars and then, in turn, these will be replaced by hydrogen fuelled cars. Although it is feasible, it is not likely that fossil fuelled cars will be replaced directly by hydrogen fuelled cars.

Despite the fact that natural gas is often found with deposits of crude oil, these two types of fuel are incompatible and need to be treated differently. However, both crude oil and natural gas are exploited by the same multi-national corporations, "The newly-perceived advantage of natural gas as a low carbon fuel can only encourage an already growing appetite for it. Although the ways of distributing and using liquid and gassy fuels differ greatly, the oil and natural gas industries are thoroughly intertwined, with the same companies engaged in finding and recovering both." It is, therefore, in the economic interests of multi-national oil corporations to promote natural gas. If multinational oil corporations succeed in restructuring society to ensure the dominance of natural gas, the greater will be the likelihood of the eventual emergence of a hydrogen fuelled economy.

The shift from a conventional fossil fuelled society to an alternative powered society reliant primarily on hydrogen will not lead to the emergence of sustainable societies. On the contrary, it will be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire. In addition, if hydrogen becomes the fuel of the future it will give a renewed justification to nuclear energy. In terms of hydrogen fuel, there is a high degree of compatibility between nuclear, and solar, power. It would be relatively easy to add nuclear power to a solar based economy. Nuclear power would be one of the most efficient ways of mass producing hydrogen. Given that solar energy is not evenly spread around the world, the temptation to use nuclear power in temperate regions of the world to back up solar power would be considerable.

Given the likelihood that a hydrogen powered society will open up opportunities for nuclear power then greenpeace, friends of the Earth and the green party are all naive in believing they can promote alternative energy/solar power/hydrogen based economies whilst, at the same time, opposing nuclear power. Solar energy is nuclear friendly and will almost certainly guarantee the survival of nuclear power.

To the extent that the car industry is responsible for propelling the switch from fossil fuels to natural gas, and then hydrogen, powered vehicles, it will also be responsible for rejuvenating the nuclear power industry. It may well be true that, "The real saviour of the north american car culture may be something that’s a long way off; hydrogen fuel." but by the same token it will also be the saviour of the nuclear power industry.

This hypothesis, that the car industry could be responsible for ushering in a transition from fossil fuelled, natural gas, and then hydrogen fuelled, vehicles which will eventually be powered by nuclear energy, may seem all too tendentious. Although the scenario might seem logically correct, in practice over the next few decades the change in fuels could turn in an entirely different direction away from nuclear power. But, the fact is that the links between the car, and the nuclear power, industries are already being forged. The route taken, however, is not the same as that outlined above.

France relies on nuclear power more than any other nation on Earth. It is so heavily committed to nuclear power that it could produce far more electricity than is needed for its own domestic consumption. As a consequence it is able to export nuclear powered electricity to england. With such a huge electricity generating capacity there is huge incentive to find new markets for electricity consumption especially given the fact that the more that nuclear power stations work at full capacity the cheaper electricity becomes. As a consequence the french government is giving increasing support to electric vehicles. It is aiming to boost the number of electric cars to 100,000 in five years time, "Under a scheme announced in the last days of Prime Minister Edourd Balladur’s government, each sale of an electric car between now and the end of next year will be subsidized by the state to the tune of 15,000 francs (£2,000), so that its price matches its petrol or diesel-criven equivalent. While the scheme extends to importers of electric cars, it is not proof of pure environmental benevolence on the part of the French government: French car manufacturers are at the forefront of electric car production, with Renault being the first to construct battery driven vehicles on the same production lines as its other models. Ordinary French consumers will, from the autumn, have a choice of 11 models of electric cars - ranging from the Citreon AX .. to the Fiat Panda Electra .. Running costs in France - where electricity is, on average, cheaper than Britain - are said to range from £1.20 to £2.00 per 70 miles. The 106 and the Citreon AX have been on trial in the Atlantic city of La Rochelle since 1993. For the experiment La Rochelle has been equipped with a network of "electricity stations" - kerb-side boxes which look like petrol pumps, into which the cars can be plugged for recharging."

Doubtlessly there are a number of supergreens drawing up car stickers to proclaim - 'This car runs on clean green energy - nuclear power'.