Agency overview | |
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Formed | 2003 |
Type | Sustainable energy advocacy |
Jurisdiction | Multinational |
Agency executives |
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Website | https://www.iphe.net/ |
The International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy (IPHE]) is an inter-governmental cooperative initiative founded in 2003 consisting of 24 countries. The IPHE works with the member countries and leaders in the hydrogen fuel and fuel cell industry in order to further develop and implement those technologies. [1]
The International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy was founded in 2003 to help create cooperation between different governments in developing hydrogen fuel cell technology. [2] The IPHE contains two central groups: the Education & Outreach Working Group and the Regulations, Codes, Standards, & Safety Working Group. [3] In addition, there are other smaller groups in the partnership such as the Hydrogen Production and Analysis task force. In July 2005, the G8 Summit endorsed the IPHE in its plan of action on climate change, clean energy, and sustainable development and identified it as a means of cooperation to develop clean energy technologies. [4] The United States was the chair of the IPHE from 2003 to 2007 and 2018 to 2021. [2] The partnership held a student outreach meeting at the University of Maryland in 2023. [5]
The IPHE consists of 24 member countries. [6] The United Arab Emirates was the most recent country to join in 2022. [7]
The Group of Eight (G8) was an inter-governmental political forum from 1997 until 2014. It had formed from incorporating Russia into the Group of Seven, or G7, and returned to its previous name after Russia was expelled in 2014.
A hydrogen vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen to move it. Hydrogen vehicles include some road vehicles, rail vehicles, space rockets, forklifts, ships and aircraft. Motive power is generated by converting the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy, either by reacting hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to power electric motors or, less commonly, by hydrogen internal combustion.
The hydrogen economy is an umbrella term that draws together the roles hydrogen can play alongside low-carbon electricity to decarbonize those sectors and activities which may be technically difficult to decarbonize through other means, or where cheaper and more energy-efficient clean solutions are not available. In this context, hydrogen economy encompasses hydrogen's production through to end-uses in ways that substantively contribute to phasing-out fossil fuels and limiting climate change.
The Fuel Cell Bus Club comprised the participants of three demonstration projects for fuel cell buses in nine European cities and two other worldwide cities between 2001 and 2007. The Fuel Cell Bus Club became a forum to share experiences and information between cities and researchers. Other cities such as Beijing also tested buses from the consortium behind the project.
A fuel cell vehicle (FCV) or fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) is an electric vehicle that uses a fuel cell, sometimes in combination with a small battery or supercapacitor, to power its onboard electric motor. Fuel cells in vehicles generate electricity generally using oxygen from the air and compressed hydrogen. Most fuel cell vehicles are classified as zero-emissions vehicles that emit only water and heat. As compared with internal combustion vehicles, hydrogen vehicles centralize pollutants at the site of the hydrogen production, where hydrogen is typically derived from reformed natural gas. Transporting and storing hydrogen may also create pollutants. Fuel cells have been used in various kinds of vehicles including forklifts, especially in indoor applications where their clean emissions are important to air quality, and in space applications. Fuel cells are being developed and tested in trucks, buses, boats, ships, motorcycles and bicycles, among other kinds of vehicles.
The FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies (FCVT) was a national Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program developing more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly highway transportation technologies to enable the United States to use less petroleum. Run by Michael Berube, it had long-term aims to develop "leap-frog" technologies to provide Americans with greater freedom of mobility and energy security, lower costs, and reduce environmental impacts.
The California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP) is a public-private partnership to promote hydrogen vehicles (including cars and buses) in California. It is notable as one of the first initiatives for that purpose undertaken in the United States. The challenge is which come first, hydrogen cars or filling stations.
The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) is a Vienna-based Quasi-International Organisation that advances markets for renewable energy and energy efficiency with a particular emphasis on the emerging markets and developing countries.
The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is an office within the United States Department of Energy. Formed from other energy agencies after the 1973 energy crisis, EERE is led by the Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, who is appointed by the president of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Alejandro Moreno currently leads the office as the Acting Assistant Secretary.
The United States produced 5.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020, the second largest in the world after greenhouse gas emissions by China and among the countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions per person. In 2019 China is estimated to have emitted 27% of world GHG, followed by the United States with 11%, then India with 6.6%. In total the United States has emitted a quarter of world GHG, more than any other country. Annual emissions are over 15 tons per person and, amongst the top eight emitters, is the highest country by greenhouse gas emissions per person. However, the IEA estimates that the richest decile in the US emits over 55 tonnes of CO2 per capita each year. Because coal-fired power stations are gradually shutting down, in the 2010s emissions from electricity generation fell to second place behind transportation which is now the largest single source. In 2020, 27% of the GHG emissions of the United States were from transportation, 25% from electricity, 24% from industry, 13% from commercial and residential buildings and 11% from agriculture. In 2021, the electric power sector was the second largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 25% of the U.S. total. These greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to climate change in the United States, as well as worldwide.
The Clean Cities Coalition Network is a coordinated group of nearly 100 coalitions in the United States working in communities across the country to advance affordable, domestic transportation fuels, energy-efficient mobility systems, and other fuel-saving technologies and practices. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office facilitates national coordination of the coalitions through its Technology Integration Program. The Network consists of 79 coalitions that work with more than 15,000 local stakeholders that have helped shift nearly 10 billion gasoline gallon equivalents of conventional fuel to alternative fuels or energy efficiency improvements, put more than 1.1 million alternative fuel vehicles on the road, and contributed to the expansion of alternative fueling station infrastructure since 1993. As of early 2020, there were more than 29,000 fueling stations nationwide that provide at least one of the following alternative fuels: ethanol (E85), biodiesel, compressed natural gas, electric, hydrogen, liquefied natural gas, renewable natural gas, or propane.
A fuel cell bus is a bus that uses a hydrogen fuel cell as its power source for electrically driven wheels, sometimes augmented in a hybrid fashion with batteries or a supercapacitor. The only emission from the bus is water. Several cities around the world have trialled and tested fuel cell buses, with over 5,600 buses in use worldwide, the majority of which are in China.
The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) was established in 2008 as a multilateral climate fund in order to finance pilot projects in developing countries at the request of the G8 and G20. The CIF administers a collection of programs with a view to helping nations fight the impacts of climate change and accelerate their shift to a low-carbon economy. Through contributions from 14 donor countries, CIF supports more than 350 projects in 72 low and middle-income countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis.
The Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC) is a high-level international forum which includes developed and developing countries. Its purpose is to enhance global cooperation in the field of energy efficiency and to facilitate policies that yield energy efficiency gains across all sectors globally. IPEEC provides information to decision-makers in major economies, facilitating candid discussions for exchanging ideas and experiences and helping countries undertake joint projects to develop and implement energy efficiency policies and measures at a global scale. It is also a forum for member and non-member economies to share information about various bilateral and multilateral initiatives. IPEEC supported initiatives are open to both member and non-member nations as well as the private sector. IPEEC is coordinating the implementation of the Group of 20 (G20) Energy Efficiency Action Plan, which was agreed by G20 leaders in late 2014 as a practical approach to strengthening voluntary international energy efficiency collaboration. Since July 2016, IPEEC is coordinating the Energy Efficiency Leading Programme (EELP) that provides the basis for a ‘comprehensive, flexible, and adequately-resourced’ framework for strengthened voluntary collaboration on energy efficiency among G20 members and beyond.
The principle of a fuel cell was discovered by Christian Friedrich Schönbein in 1838, and the first fuel cell was constructed by Sir William Robert Grove in 1839. The fuel cells made at this time were most similar to today's phosphoric acid fuel cells. Most hydrogen fuel cells today are of the proton exchange membrane (PEM) type. A PEM converts the chemical energy released during the electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen into electrical energy. The Hydrogen Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1990 and Energy Policy Act of 1992 were the first national legislative articles that called for large-scale hydrogen demonstration, development, and research programs. A five-year program was conducted that investigated the production of hydrogen from renewable energy sources and the feasibility of existing natural gas pipelines to carry hydrogen. It also called for the research into hydrogen storage systems for electric vehicles and the development of fuel cells suitable to power an electric motor vehicle.
Energy in the United Arab Emirates describes energy and electricity production, consumption and import in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE has 7% of global proved oil reserves, about 100 billion barrels. Primary energy usage in 2009 in the UAE was 693 TWh and 151 TWh per million persons.
The Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) is an international clean energy platform.
Robert K. Dixon is an energy, environment, and economic expert at the Office of International Affairs, US Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, DC, USA.
The European Green Deal, approved in 2020, is a set of policy initiatives by the European Commission with the overarching aim of making the European Union (EU) climate neutral in 2050. The plan is to review each existing law on its climate merits, and also introduce new legislation on the circular economy, building renovation, biodiversity, farming and innovation.
Green hydrogen (GH2 or GH2) is hydrogen produced by the electrolysis of water, using renewable electricity. Production of green hydrogen causes significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions than production of grey hydrogen, which is derived from fossil fuels without carbon capture.