Friday, January 25, 2008

First 3 Weeks of Jan in Review - Fuel Cell Excitement

So I was planning on doing the first annual 'Fuel Cell Year in Review' sometime this month, but I've been busy plotting the global takeover by high temp PEM. More about that when I get rid of that darn cloak of silence. But while I've been procrastinating, things have been popping, and not just hydrogen dirigibles.

Hopefully I'll be able to go into more detail shortly on these events:

Biggest dollar deal: Abu Dhabi, the largest emerite in the UAE and home of the capital Abu Dhabi city, has funded a clean energy project to the tune of $15 billion which includes (you fuel cell fans note the difference between 'renewables' and 'clean energy') solar, wind, and hydrogen. The hydrogen production facility will have the capacity to produce 420 MW of electricity by reforming natural gas and sequestering 90% of the CO2. The plant is due to come on line in 2012, so hopefully there's plenty of time to squeeze some fuel cell action rather than giving it all up to hydrogen combustion turbines (are you listening waste hydrogen market seekers?)

Next big deal: Along the waste hydrogen lines, HydroGen has managed to talk electronics and consumer DMFC leader into signing as the Asian distributor for its yet-to-be-built 400 kW - 4 MW olde tyme technology PAFC plants. Samsung is clearly jealous of POSCO's deal with FuelCell Energy and is aware of Korea's $.28 feed-in tariff and pro-DG spark spread. I wish them luck.

Commercial News: German Smart SFC Fuel Cells is booking lots of wholesale orders for its small RV APU methanol fueled units, in the 300W range. It has a handle on the distribution of the methanol cartridges throughout the EU. Excellent for getting FCs in the public domain.

Ballard Stays on Top: Ballard signs up its second forklift power OEM (first was Excide for a tribrid) in Danish H2 Logic just in case Plug never gets it together with the Cellex and GH packages)

To Be Continued...

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