You know those stories that just won't let you go?

The true story of limitless clean power, and why we still don’t have it. Maverick TV director turned hydrogen fuel cell pioneer Nick Abson (and same guy who brought us Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ and Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’) - resurfaces after years underground - to tell his unbelievable story, in conversation with filmmaker Harry Otto Brünjes; having been locked in an against-all-odds battle to liberate clean energy, after the tech was stolen by Russians. JOIN THE MISSION at https://www.goingcleanisdirtybusiness.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the clean energy revolution wasn't waiting in the future but was discovered decades ago and quietly left behind?

In 1990, television producer Nick Abson was researching a documentary about the "perfect car" when he uncovered something far bigger than vehicle emissions.

What began as a simple question, became a lifetime obsession that would take Nick from television studios to fuel cell factories, from boardrooms to courtrooms and into a battle with some of the most powerful interests on Earth.

In this opening chapter, Nick retraces the moment that everything changed. The epiphany that launched a billion dollar clean energy crusade and the first clues that the future wasn't being held back by technology, but by something else entirely.

Key takeaways

- How a TV documentary about the "perfect car" led to the discovery of hydrogen fuel cell technology

- Why fuel cells powered the Apollo missions and remain one of the most efficient forms of clean energy

- The hidden history of a technology that predates the modern oil industry

- How concerns about emissions and climate impact were being raised decades before they entered mainstream debate

- The surprising figures, from oil executives to space engineers, who believed the future belonged to hydrogen

- Nick's life changing realisation that limitless clean power was possible

- The origins of a mission to create community owned energy that anyone, anywhere could build

- Why some technologies thrive and others seem to disappear just as they're about to change the world

This story doesn't end when the episode does. We're building more than a series. We're building a community.

Join the conversation, challenge the ideas, share your perspective and help us spread the story.

Follow on Instagram: @goingcleanpod

Follow on TikTok: @goingcleanpod

Check out the website: https://www.goingcleanisdirtybusiness.com/

Contact the team: goingcleanisdirtybusiness@gmail.com

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The bigger this community becomes, the harder this story is to ignore.

00:00 Introduction

01:08 Nick Today, Life in a Homemade Lab in France

02:02 The Arson Attack That Set Him Back a Year

09:53 Where It All Began, The Epiphany

11:04 The TV Show That Changed Everything

17:16 Broken in the Snow, Nick's Darkest Moment

20:39 The Oil Executive Who Saw It Coming

24:29 A Brief History of Fuel Cells

30:30 The Conference, the Briefcase and the First Fuel Cell Nick Ever Saw

41:04 Called to Los Angeles and Why Nothing Would Ever Be the Same

The true story of limitless clean power, and why we still don’t have it. Maverick TV director turned hydrogen fuel cell pioneer Nick Abson (and same guy who brought us Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ and Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’) - resurfaces after years underground - to tell his unbelievable story, in conversation with filmmaker Harry Otto Brünjes; having been locked in an against-all-odds battle to liberate clean energy, after the tech was stolen by Russians. JOIN THE MISSION at https://www.goingcleanisdirtybusiness.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when a TV director tells the world's biggest car manufacturers they're wrong?

Nick Abson had never built a car. He had no fuel cell, no company and no experience in the automotive industry.

So naturally, he stood up in front of 3,000 people and declared he would beat Mercedes Benz.

What began as a moment of frustration at an international fuel cell conference would become one of the most audacious promises in clean energy history. As Nick finds himself pulled deeper into the world of hydrogen, he starts to realise that groundbreaking technology alone isn't enough to change the world.

Behind the excitement lies a more complicated story, one of power, influence, ambition and the forces shaping the future of energy before most people even knew it existed.

This is the episode where an outsider picks a fight with an entire industry and accidentally changes the course of his life forever.

Key takeaways

- The moment Nick publicly challenged the biggest names in the hydrogen fuel cell industry

- Why a single act of injustice sparked an impossible promise

- What the fuel cell industry looked like before clean energy entered the mainstream

- How powerful interests were already shaping the future of hydrogen technology

- The surprising conversation that helped explain fuel cells in the simplest possible terms

- Why Nick became convinced that clean energy should belong to communities, not corporations

- The unlikely chain of events that led to the creation of ZEVCO

- How one bold decision transformed a TV producer into a clean energy insurgent

- Why some revolutions begin by accident

This isn't just a podcast. It's an investigation into the clean energy revolution we almost had and the future we can still build.

Got a question, theory, lead or story to share?

Join the conversation, challenge the ideas, share your perspective and help us spread the story.

Follow on Instagram: @goingcleanpod

Follow on TikTok: @goingcleanpod

Check out the website: https://www.goingcleanisdirtybusiness.com/

Contact the team: goingcleanisdirtybusiness@gmail.com

New episodes drop every other Wednesday.

Follow, subscribe and join the conversation wherever you're listening. The bigger this community becomes, the harder this story is to ignore.

00:00 Introduction

01:33 Who Was Alan Lloyd and Why He Mattered

04:19 Nick's Daughter Alex and the Fuel Cell Sandwich Explanation

07:06 Who Really Owns a Fuel Cell?

10:00 The World Fuel Cell Council and the First Signs of Control

11:07 The Conference in Long Beach

13:07 The Speech That Made Nick the Most Hated Man in the Room

16:42The Phone Call on the Bus That Changed Everything

18:31 Joe Maceda, a Hotel Phone Booth and the Birth of ZEVCO

The true story of limitless clean power, and why we still don’t have it. Maverick TV director turned hydrogen fuel cell pioneer Nick Abson (and same guy who brought us Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ and Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’) - resurfaces after years underground - to tell his unbelievable story, in conversation with filmmaker Harry Otto Brünjes; having been locked in an against-all-odds battle to liberate clean energy, after the tech was stolen by Russians. JOIN THE MISSION at https://www.goingcleanisdirtybusiness.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.