"Hercules" Project has a dual purpose: demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of producing hydrogen from renewable solar energy; and validate the use of hydrogen in fuel cells in the automotive sector. For it, a Spanish consortium of various companies and research groups, specialists in each of the technology areas in the project, has being formed, and the project has been divided into three sub-projects:

• “Las Columnas”, to develop and construct the renewable hydrogen production and refuelling plant.

• “El León”, to integrate new technologies in the automotive sector, improving energy efficiency and providing environmental benefits.

• “El Olimpo”, that performs the overall project coordination, evaluation, technology transfer, diffusion and dissemination of results.

To achieve “El León” objectives, a non-pollutant vehicle, which replaces the conventional power train of a 4x4 commercial vehicle with a new power system consisting of a fuel cell stack fed with hydrogen, and an electric motor, will be developed.

The integration of the entire vehicle, the fuel cell/battery system development, the power system control optimization from the energetic and weight point of view, the light compressed-hydrogen storage systems usage, all active and passive safety research, the interfaces between the vehicle and the fuelling system and the user information systems are such innovative processes that both, companies and investigation groups, face up to an interesting challenge.

“Hércules” project has been partially financed by the Education & Science Ministry (PSE- 120000- 2006- 4), the Innovation and Development Agency of Andalusia (IDEA) and the Andalusia Technology Corporation (CTA).