Two programs will be running simultaneously to get New York onto the hydrogen highway fast. 

General Electric Co. landed a $2 million contract with the U.S. Department of Energy that could turn the New York State Thruway into a test area for hydrogen as an alternative power and fuel source. 

The program, called the H21-Way Initiative, will study how to develop a low-cost hydrogen production and delivery infrastructure. The program will also create a conceptual design that could make the New Baltimore rest area the rest stop of the future, complete with wind turbines, solar panels and fuel-cell systems. 

Meanwhile, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the Long Island Power Authority and the New York Power Authority are putting up $206,000 to develop the New York State Hydrogen Roadmap to outline key issues and challenges in developing hydrogen energy, study other states' successes and failures, and take an inventory of New York companies that are developing hydrogen-related technology. 

The National Hydrogen Association, an organization with representatives from energy, automobile and aerospace companies as well as government entities, also is involved in the nine-month road map project. 

Both programs eventually might feed off each other. 

"The intention is to look at how New York could embrace the hydrogen economy," said Pradeep Haldar, director of the state university's Albany NanoTech's Energy and Environmental Technology Application Center, known as E2TAC. 

The state University at Albany is working on both projects. 

Praxair Inc., an industrial gas supplier, is working on the GE project. 

Dan Smith, GE's manager of strategic market development, said GE was approached a few years ago by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) to find a way to promote hydrogen and renewable resources in New York. 

Phase I will focus on research and development of a hydrogen production and delivery infrastructure. It will include the design of a rest area that uses wind turbines and fuel-cell systems. Phase 1 is expected to be done in early 2005. 

"The vision is, 30 or 40 years from now you'll be driving around in cars fueled by hydrogen," Haldar said. For that to be a reality, New York has to have places to fill up. 

If the state and private partners can raise $3 million to fund Phase II, the New Baltimore rest area on the Thruway will become a demonstration site because it serves vehicles traveling north and south. It might have wind turbines or solar-energy systems generating power for the site and for the state's electric grid. Hydrogen for cars also would be stored at the site. 

Smith said the project fits well with the state's Hydrogen Roadmap. 

That project hasn't yet begun. Energetics Inc., a Columbia, Md.-based company which created a similar federal road map, is being paid about $100,000 by NYSERDA and its partners to conduct workshops and forums across the state. The goal is to assemble experts to brainstorm the best way for New York to develop a hydrogen program. It will also help the state better tap into federal funds. 

"We need to know what New York businesses and energy leaders believe the future for New York is and what role it will play," said Joe Badin, Energetics' assistant vice president. 

A kickoff meeting is scheduled for July 15 at NYSERDA's Albany office. 

"The road map is going to set the long-term course for New York's hydrogen program," said John Love, NYSERDA's project manager. "Right now, the state doesn't have a hydrogen program. We don't have anything developed that tells us where we're headed."