Fuel cells this week

1. Introduction of a fuel cell in London's Trafalgar Square powering the Christmas tree there.Nicky Gavron, London's Deputy Mayor turn off the mains power and switch on the 5kW fuel cell in a very public display of the technology. Although the cell will only power the lights for a short time, the better news is that it will be seen elsewhere in London in the future in an ongoing educational role.

2. London's other high profile fuel cell project is the small fleet of buses forming part of the CUTE programme.

3. Tokyo Gas's plans for the introduction of residential fuel cell units in Japan next year. They will lease systems for ten years at a round cost of one million Yen. For the first three years, the company's intention is simply to lease systems (starting with 200 in 2005) before starting sales in 2008.

4. Japan's Railway Technical Research Institute is planning to build an experimental fuel cell train. It has already built a small scale model and will look at larger prototypes before aiming to bring a full size locomotive into service by 2010. We'll let you know more when it happens.