With the world starting to panic over rocketing temperatures and oil prices, hydrogen has a simple, seductive appeal.

And Wales could be at the forefront of the hydrogen revolution, saving us from abandoning our cars or dimming the lights, it was claimed last night.

Hydrogen promises limitless energy with no pollution, drinkable water being the only emission from its use.

But the barrier to a hydrogen economy is production because, to release hydrogen from water, an electric charge is necessary and most electricity is produced by fossil fuels.

But now the Carmarthenshire Energy Agency is embarking on a joint project with Ireland to produce hydrogen from trees in a series of farms in West Wales.

The Wales and Ireland Rural Hydrogen Energy Project aims to release hydrogen contained in fast-growing willow trees.

Hydrogen from renewable resources like trees can be obtained by the use of microbes to break down the willow into methane and hydrogen gas.

Or, alternatively, willow can be used to fuel electricity to produce hydrogen, the growing crops "paying back" the atmosphere for any carbon dioxide produced in electricity production.

Another possibility includes the use of solar power to release hydrogen into its useful molecular form as a gas.

Guto Owen, manager of the Carmarthenshire Energy Agency, said, "Hydrogen is a clean, pollution-free form of energy which is emerging as a major player in combating climate change.

"It has been touted as the fuel of the future in replacing fossil fuels. Governments and companies around the world are investing heavily into research and development projects which can realise hydrogen's huge potential.

"As countries which share similar characteristics in terms of their natural rural environments, Wales and Ireland are ideally placed to take full advantage of this potential.

"The opportunities are limitless and the countries which can develop significant hydrogen supplies will stand to gain enormous economic, social and environmental benefits. "

Dr Richard Dinsdale, of the University of Glamorgan, who is involved in the project, said, "The Hydrogen Research Unit at the University of Glamorgan conducts national and international leading research into sustainable hydrogen energy technologies.

"The Hydrogen Farm concept was identified as part of the Objective One-funded 'Hydrogen Wales' project and it provides an ideal route for the development of research performed in Wales into technologies which can provide social and economic benefit to rural areas.

"It will also address national and international issues such as security of energy supply and global climate change."

The hydrogen would power cars and other vehicles through the use of fuel cells.

There are hydrogen fuel cell motors already in operation in Canada, the USA and other countries and, notably, on London's RV1 bus route.

These fuel cells are not new. They were invented in 1839 by a Swansea lawyer, Sir William Robert Grove, who called his original device a "gas battery".

It consisted of two platinum porous electrodes each enclosed in a glass cylinder. One glass cylinder contained hydrogen and the other oxygen.

The £170,000 pilot project to develop phase one of the Wales-Ireland partnership on hydrogen energy and develop a blueprint for the Hydrogen Farm will last until March 2008.

Phase two will involve constructing a viable demonstration facility for hydrogen production with commercial spin-offs.

Sir William Robert Grove - father of the fuel cell
Grove was born in Swansea in 1811 and his family lived at The Laurels, a private house on the site of what would later became Swansea Central Police.

Grove became a barrister in 1835 and later a judge.

He took a keen interest in science and his first experiments were undertaken in the basement of the Royal Institution of South Wales, now Swansea Museum.

He based his fuel cell on the fact that sending an electric current through water splits the water into its component parts of hydrogen and oxygen.

So Grove tried reversing the reaction - combining hydrogen and oxygen to produce eelectricity and water.

The term "fuel cell" was coined later in 1889 by Ludwig Mond and Charles Langer, who attempted to build the first practical device using air and industrial coal gas.

UK lags behind in drive for fuel cell technology
Hydrogen fuel cells have been "neglected" by industry and the Government as a reliable source of clean technology, a report claims today.

Reinvestment in nuclear power is likely to squeeze out funding to make fuel cells competitive with existing energy sources, says a study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

The UK is lagging behind other countries, including Germany, North America and Japan, in pursuing the potential of fuel cells, says the report.

Even though the UK is comparatively strong in developing hydrogen as a fuel source, the industry supply chain is generally under developed, the study shows.

The position in Germany is in "stark contrast", with energy firms committed to testing fuel cells and more active government incentives.

Buses are a promising test bed for fuel cells, but the industry is "lukewarm" about its potential.

"The role of a clear guiding vision and political will is illustrated in Japan, which has bypassed bus demonstrations in favour of building a fuel infrastructure that can be used by the automotive industry to support the development of cars," says the report.