29 June 2012 Last updated at 07:52 ET

Isle of Man eyes hydrogen fuel future

The Isle of Man has taken part in a hydrogen fuel trial with an eye to reducing the island's carbon footprint.

The tests were carried out by Clean tech firm, ITM Power, to see if the island could create its own car fuel.

Hydrogen is seen as vital to future energy systems, and work is ongoing to make it cheap enough to be viable.

Infrastructure minister David Cretney hopes the test results will help determine how the technology could help reduce Manx fuel dependency.

Hydrogen can be split from water wherever electricity is available. With a fuel cell, it can be turned back into electricity, with water as the benign by-product.

If the electricity comes from a local renewable source such as a wind farm or array of solar cells, clean power can be stored until needed.