Hydrogen and fuel cell demonstrations in Turkey

As a non-profit UNIDO project funded 100% by the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, International Center for Hydrogen Energy Technologies (ICHET) has been implementing pilot demonstration projects, providing applied R&D funding; organizing workshops, education and training activities in Turkey and other developing countries to show potential benefits of "hydrogen and fuel cell systems". It is important to leap-frog developing countries to hydrogen for eliminating detrimental effect of fossil fuels. To achieve its mission, ICHET implements pilot demonstration projects in combination with renewable energy systems to encourage local industry to manufacture similar systems and explore market potential for such use. Support is provided to selected industrial partners in Turkey for developing products or for early demonstrations including a fuel cell forklift, a fuel cell boat, a fuel cell passenger cart with PV integrated roof-top, renewable integrated mobile house, fuel cell based UPS installations. As more and more systems demonstrated, public awareness on applications of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies will increase and viability of such systems will be realized to change public perception.