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Hydrogen fuel cells – an ultra-clean energy source – offer a lot of potential for powering the transportation of the future, but there are significant hurdles to overcome: price, size, and supply, to name just three. Now UK budget airline EasyJet thinks it might have found a way to incorporate hydrogen fuel cells into its planes in a way that’s safe and cost-effective.

While you’d struggle to find a hydrogen fuel cell refuelling station on your daily commute, these devices can be relatively easily supplied to airports, and EasyJet wants to use them on a limited scale to begin with – during the time that the aircraft are taxiing. That means while you’re trundling from the gate to the runway, your plane won’t be emitting any harmful carbon emissions, and will be a whole lot quieter.

The switch is likely to be cheaper for airlines too. A recent study commissioned by technology firms Safran and Honeywell found that fuel consumption could be cut by 51 percent while planes were on the […]