The Island’s highways could soon be the site for an experiment that would see vehicles fuelled by hydrogen produced through wind power.

As part of a series of hydrogen-fuel projects being backed by Natural Resources Canada, Charlottetown is being considered for a demonstration project that would use hydrogen to power shuttle buses. The project will also employ hydrogen-powered vehicles in Ottawa and Toronto.

Nick Beck is Natural Resources Canada’s science and technology director for hydrogen fuel cells and transportation energy. He said the Island was chosen for the project because of the province’s developing wind energy facilities.

“It’s a situation where you can obtain hydrogen through electrolysis that uses electricity generated by wind,” Beck said. “If that hydrogen is used to power a vehicle using a fuel cell, you have a very clean system.

“There’s a zero-emission fuel cycle.”

Ottawa announced a total of $2.2 million in funding for hydrogen projects across Canada. The money was made public on the weekend at a Hydrogen and Fuel Cells trade show in Toronto.

The Island will be part of a $300,826 contract awarded to Stuart Energy System to develop three hydrogen fuelling stations.

The projects are intended to help build market familiarity and consumer acceptance for hydrogen as a fuel source.

The announcement was warmly greeted Monday by Jamie Ballem, P.E.I.’s minister of Environment and Energy.

“I want to congratulate Stuart Energy for being selected to work on the engineering of the hydrogen fuelling stations,” Ballem said.

“This funding support speaks to the company’s reputation as a leader in development of hydrogen technology and is certainly a positive announcement for Prince Edward Island.”

Natural Resources Minister John Efford said demonstrating the viability of hydrogen fuelling and of hydrogen as an energy source will be an important first step towards making it an economically viable fuel.

“Developing the infrastructure to support fuel cell vehicles is key, and Stuart Energy’s work on hydrogen fuelling station is going to bring us closer to that goal,” Efford said in a news release.

Fuel cell technology generates power by capturing the charge released when hydrogen and oxygen join to form water. But Beck said the initial use of hydrogen fuel may come through the more conventional approach of burning it in a vehicle’s internal combustion engine.

Stuart Energy is already involved in developing hydrogen technology on P.E.I., partnering in the provincial government’s development of a “hydrogen village” project that would use both fuel cells and hydrogen combustion as power sources for a West Prince community.

The company’s demonstration on P.E.I. could use hydrogen to power either buses or other vehicles, depending on the demand.

Beck said hydrogen combustion is not quite as “clean” as fuel cell technology but it is more accessible. Fuel cell technology is still considered too expensive for widespread use.

“The conversion of a vehicle’s internal combustion engine to burning hydrogen is relatively simple compared to conversion to a fuel-cell electrical engine,” he said.

“It’s a bridging technology, shall we say. Hydrogen as a fuel could support the availability of hydrogen stations and of production and acceptance of it as a source of energy. It could then be available when fuel cells can come into wider use.”

The initial contract to Stuart will be used for engineering and designing fuelling stations, and is expected to be completed during this fiscal year.

Beck said any actual construction of hydrogen facilities under the project would probably have to await further funding.