While they might not be perfect for every use case, powering a vehicle with a hydrogen fuel cell can be quite a compelling solution. They're quiet, they don't generate a lot of waste heat, and once they've used their fuel, you're left with pure water. Companies like Hyundai and Toyota both have fuel-cell powered cars for sale, with Honda and others close behind. But there are other potential markets for fuel cell vehicles, including the US Army.

The traits mentioned above—being quiet, creating water as a waste product—are appealing when your mission involves being stealthy but you still need to get around. Which is why General Motors is working with the US Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) to test a modified Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck over the next 12 months to see if it can cope with the daily grind of military life. "The potential capabilities hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can bring to the Warfighter are extraordinary, and our engineers and scientists are excited about the opportunity to exercise the limits of this demonstrator," said TARDEC Director Paul Rogers.

GM actually has a long history of fuel cell development. On a visit to the company's heritage center earlier this year, we saw the 1966 Electrovan, a fuel cell powered electric vehicle that used the same technology that NASA employed to generate onboard power for its manned spaceflight program. More recently, in 2007 the company also tested a fleet of almost 120 fuel cell-powered Chevrolet Equinoxes with consumers, and it maintains a fuel cell research lab in Warren, Michigan (TARDEC has its own fuel cell research program in nearby Pontiac).

This program is unlikely to change some of the inherent drawbacks of hydrogen fuel cells (specifically the difficulty in storing hydrogen for very long and the fact that it can be energy intensive to make it in the first place), but it may well help the adoption of automotive fuel cells where it makes sense to do so.