With the aim to “encourage more businesses to switch to hydrogen-fuelled vehicles”, the U.K. government has launched a £2 million ($2.89 million) fund to provide subsidies.

Private businesses, as well as organizations such as police forces and health trusts would be enabled to bid for funding in order to complement their fleets with zero emission vehicles with the help of the Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) Fleet Support Scheme launched by the government, said the Department for Transport and Office for Low Emission Vehicles in a news release on Tuesday.

With successful bidders seeing up to 75 percent of their costs covered and subsidized, the newly launched fund could put as many as 100 new hydrogen fueled cell cars on Britain’s roads by spring 2017, hopes the government authorities.

“Hydrogen fuel cells are an important part of our vision for almost all cars and vans to be zero-emission by 2050,” transport minister Andrew Jones said in a statement.

“This funding, along with the growing network of hydrogen refueling stations opening in England, will help businesses and the public sector to get on board with this exciting technology,” Jones added.

“This is further proof that we are leading the way in making journeys cleaner and protecting the environment,” he said.

With their only by-product water vapor which is absolutely harmless to both humans and the environment, fuel cell vehicles have no carbon dioxide emissions that give them the zero emission ratings. For the development of the next generation of clean vehicles, a range of options are being looked at with the development and emergence of new technologies.

For example, while electric vehicles such as Tesla’s Model S can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than three seconds, Ford unveiled plans for a new solar-powered hybrid car in January of 2014. The clean cars that are fast gaining popularity are hybrid cars that have both an electric motor and a petrol engine.

There seems to be a growing appetite for hydrogen based fuel systems. Fuel cells “have the potential to replace the internal combustion engine in vehicles,” says the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program.

European airline easyJet claimed that a zero emissions hydrogen fuel system, which the company had announced plans for developing earlier this year, could save about 50,000 tons of fuel per year. The idea of stowing a hydrogen fuel cell in the hold of the aircraft is the basis of the concept that the company is working upon.

(Adapted from CNBC)

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