To be successful, new and disruptive technologies either have to create a brand new market, or compete with and displace the incumbent technologies. In the case of Fuel Cells and Hydrogen, those incumbent technologies (most often internal combustion engines and fossil fuels, but also electric power and batteries) tend to be very mature, benefitting from low costs derived from high production volumes, and high reliability resulting from accumulated engineering and manufacturing expertise.

It follows that, in any given application, a certain combination of conditions is required for the new technology to become attractive. The objective of this part of Roads2HyCom was to explore what those conditions are. Conclusions drawn can be used as inputs to, for example, recommendations and conclusions for research (WP6), for the energy supply, or for the approach taken by government-supported early adoption initiatives (WP7).

Roads2HyCom approached this analysis by a combination of the following:

• A compilation of scenarios for the uptake of Fuel Cell and Hydrogen technology, in order to give context to the time-frame in which mass adoption should be studied (R2H4001PU)
• A study of regional factors, in order to establish how these might influence the development route or tipping-point for the uptake of the new technology (R2H4002PU)
• Construction of key characteristics (costs, environmental performance) of likely main future energy chains and typical applications, in the light of recent developments in energy and raw material prices (R2H4003PU and R2H4004PU)
• Identification of Gaps, Opportunities and Synergies by analysis of energy chain-application pairings to compare aggregate environmental performance and capital cost / fuel cost relationships, with similar data for future incumbent technologies (R2H4007PU and R2H4008PU)

	Reports:
			Roads2HyCom R2H4001PU – Snapshots of hydrogen uptake in the future.pdf - 1.3MB
			Roads2HyCom R2H4002PU - Region Profiles - 0.5MB
			Roads2HyCom R2H4003PU - Well to Tank Technology Pathways and Carbon Balance - 1.4MB
			Roads2HyCom R2H4004PU - Tank to User Technology Pathways and Carbon Balance - 2.5MB
			Roads2HyCom R2H4007PUv3 - Analysis of Opportunities and Synergies in Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Technologies - 0.8MB
			Roads2HyCom R2H4008PU - Analysis of Opportunities and Synergies in Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Technologies - Case Studies - 4.0MB

There will be more reports published from WP4 later in 2009.