Nick Abson finds himself deep inside Belgium’s VITO site, where a sudden shutdown leaves a full fuel cell factory stranded mid operation. Nick is given one week to move the entire facility and in response, he challenges the remaining staff to do something even more outrageous: resurrect the company and build a working fuel cell vehicle. But how?

What starts as an emergency evacuation turns into an audacious rebuild attempt: not just saving equipment, but trying to turn it into something tangible before everything disappears entirely.

Key takeaways

- What it looked like when the world’s only industrial fuel cell production line was dismantled piece by piece under pressure

- How Elenco went from cutting edge ESA contractor to a system collapsing overnight

- The surreal reality of relocating a live industrial plant covered in carbon dust into a half ruined building

- The role of the lost European Space Agency contract in triggering the rapid unravelling of the entire operation

- Why building a fuel cell vehicle became both a technical goal and a survival strategy for keeping the project alive

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.

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Contact the team: goingcleanisdirtybusiness@gmail.com

New episodes drop every other Wednesday.

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00:00 Introduction

02:10 The Evacuation

04:02 Engineering under Pressure

10:52 Building the Team & Vision

12:35 Pivoting from TV to Tech

14:04 The Need for a Demonstration

15:35 Partnering with Pasquali

20:04 The State of EVs in the 90s

25:38 The Battle Against the Status Quo

28:35 A Look Back at Nick's Roots

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.

Nick Abson cuts a deal with a Belgian manufacturer to build a fuel cell engine for his TV show, when he receives an early morning phone call:

They are being suddenly shut down and just like that, the project, the promise and the future he thought he had secured start to unravel.

What follows is a frantic scramble involving emergency fundraising, Rothschild meetings and a desperate attempt to save a company already slipping out of existence.

It’s a rare glimpse of a working clean energy future, seen just long enough to realise it might disappear before the world is ready to understand what it’s looking at.

Key takeaways

- The moment a TV director stumbled into Belgium’s nuclear era research site and discovered the world’s only industrial fuel cell production line

- Why a quiet deal with a manufacturer to build a TV show suddenly collapsed overnight

- What it looked like when fuel cells were already being manufactured at scale, before the world even noticed

- How Elenco was quietly building alkaline fuel cells for the European Space Agency

- The surreal reality of a “future factory” inside a nuclear research campus buried over radioactive waste

- Why the entire operation depended on fragile political and institutional funding

- How the loss of the ESA contract triggered a rapid collapse of a functioning clean energy system

- The role of corporate and political pressure, including competition from Siemens

- Why emergency fundraising turned into a desperate scramble through banks, investors and rewritten business plans

- How a working version of the clean energy future nearly existed, before disappearing in plain sight

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

Follow, subscribe and share this episode.

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

00:00 Introduction

01:42 Discovery at VITO

05:12 The Promise of Fuel Cells

11:06 A Deal Unravels

15:22 The Frantic Scramble

21:38 Auction and Intervention

25:12 The Reality of Ownership

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.

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.

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

Follow, subscribe and share this episode.

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.

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.