A couple of recent articles take a look at the increasingly better economics of solar technology. This News.com piece focuses on solar thermal technology and scenarios in which it could become cost competitive with coal for power production. This is an area that Vinod Khosla is closely following and putting his money behind. And this Technology Review piece looks at a new company called Soliant Energy that is using solar concentrator technology — that is, a system of mirrors and lenses that focus the light — to improve the efficiency and dramatically lower the cost of solar PV systems. There are many companies working on both thermal and concentrator concepts to solar power production, giving me great hope that we will indeed see cost-competitive solar on a large scale in the coming decade. Okay, so call me a dreamer…

In yet another sign of retailers contributing to a shift in behaviour toward green products, IKEA Canada has announced it will provide free, premium parking to drivers of hybrids and other fuel-efficient vehicles. For anyone who has shopped at IKEA on a busy day, getting a parking spot close to the store entrance could prove appealing. Now, will it drive consumers to purchase green cars? Well, not on its own, but as more retailers, governments, and businesses move in this direction the cumulative effect will play a significant role in changing consumer behaviour and influencing “green” purchases.

In yet another sign of retailers contributing to a shift in behaviour toward green products, IKEA Canada has announced it will provide free, premium parking to drivers of hybrids and other fuel-efficient vehicles. For anyone who has shopped at IKEA on a busy day, getting a parking spot close to the store entrance could prove appealing. Now, will it drive consumers to purchase green cars? Well, not on its own, but as more retailers, governments, and businesses move in this direction the cumulative effect will play a significant role in changing consumer behaviour and influencing “green” purchases.

First Plug Power bought out Cellex Power, now it has just scooped up General Hydrogen. Suddenly, in just a couple months, two of Canada’s higher profile hydrogen fuel cell companies (both based in British Columbia) have been Americanized. Of course, this is history just repeating itself, because Canadian companies have a tendency to get a ball rolling before being scooped up by a foreign company when there’s any sign of momentum.

That said, we’re talking about momentum in the forklift market — not your sexiest fuel-cell application, and a far cry from the promises of fuel-cell powered cars zooming around our highways and city streets. Still, if it can pay the bills… Given that forklifts are the near-term mobile application for fuel cells, it perhaps makes sense that the market is consolidating. Too bad it’s not Canadian companies doing the buying, and too bad these two companies are going south (at least with respect to corporate control) after receiving millions worth of grants from Canadian taxpayers.

We’ve still got Vancouver-based Ballard Power and Mississauga-based Hydrogenics. Ballard, of course, was selling fuel-cell stacks to both Cellex and General Hydrogen, and it made clear in a press release today that Plug Power has agreed to honour the arrangement for two years. After that, who knows what will happen? Plug Power may decide to design its own stacks and squeeze Ballard out of the mix. Hydrogenics, meanwhile, appears to have flatlined — at least with regards to its stock price. Like Cellex and General Hydrogen, rival Hydrogenics is also pursuing the forklift market. You have to wonder whether further consolidation is coming? Will Hydrogenics and Ballard hook up and become a Canadian fuel cell giant, or will Hydrogenics also go south?

I don’t mean to be down on this industry. I see applications for forklifts, for home and industrial co-gen units, and for back-up supplies, but because of cost, infrastructure problems and advancements in other technologies — hybrids, plug-in hybrids, green fuels — I just don’t see fuel-cell power cars becoming a reality. The reason: there’s no need for it to become a reality.

BTW: Click here for a different take on the Plug Power acquisitions at Inside Greentech.

On a similar note, and for the sake of fairness, I’m going to reproduce here an e-mail sent to me in late March by John Tak, president of Hydrogen & Fuel Cells Canada:

Timing is everything. Taking advantage of PM Harper’s BC ecoTrust announcement in BC last week, Hydrogen & Fuel Cells Canada (H2FCC) organized a hydrogen and fuel cell sector roundtable with the PM including 20 of our company executives and research partners. At the head of the table from the Government of Canada were PM Harper, Premier Campbell, Minister John Baird, Minister Gary Lunn and Minister Chuck Strahl.

I think what may have caught their attention the most is the fact that Canada’s hydrogen and fuel cell sectors have been investing over $200 million per year in R&D ($293 million in 2003) and that this equals 30% of Canada’s total energy R&D investment by the private sector (according to NRCan stats). The private sector has created 2,000 jobs and invested over $1 billion over the last five years. There is no other clean energy sector in Canada that is investing at this level to develop a made-in-Canada technology…

Having said that, I believe the Prime Minister was interested to learn that Cellex and General Hydrogen (using a Ballard fuel cell stack), and Hydrogenics using their own stack, are now selling into the early-adopter fuel cell forklift market. Hydrogenics is selling into the stationary, back-up power market, Questair is selling hydrogen purification units, Dynetek is selling hydrogen storage tanks, and Hyteon is starting to sell residential fuel cell systems into Japan.

There are many other companies doing innovative work in Canada’s hydrogen and fuel cell sector such as Canadian micro fuel cell developers like Tekion or Angstrom Power. Angstrom recently raised $18 million in new capital. Large companies are involved in the sector such as Air Liquide, Enbridge Gas, BC Hydro, for example. These companies and others, as well as Canada academic and research organizations are developing a made-in-Canada clean energy sector which is recognized globally.

The Prime Minister of Japan has a Canadian fuel cell providing electricity and hot water in his official residence. When President Hu Jintao of China visted North America a little over a year ago, he cancelled meetings with all companies except Ballard Power Systems. Canada is set to gain even more global recognition with a recent decision by BC Transit to proceed with the purchase of 20 hydrogen powered fuel cell buses for use in regular fleet service in Whistler, BC. These buses will make up 70% of the Whistler bus fleet and operate before, during and after the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

You may know that everyone has been saying, in regards to the transportation application of hydrogen and fuel cells, that we need to focus on fleets where hydrogen fueling infrastructure does not have to be widely deployed. This BC Transit initiative solves that problem and represents the largest fleet of fuel cell buses in the world.

My Clean Break column today revisits the idea of using medium- and high-temperature geothermal heat to replace the use of natural gas in oil sands production. After writing about this option three months ago, and highlighting that some companies in the oil sands have formed a consortium to study geothermal’s potential, I remain surprised that it has not been widely discussed and debated by our provincial and federal politicians. The sound of silence is deafening. Instead, there’s been a lot of talk about nuclear and carbon capture/sequestration, even though geothermal may be the more economical, safer and cleanest option.

We need more awareness of this topic. It’s encouraging that Suncor, Shell, Nexen and others have formed a consortium and are quietly assessing the technology and business case. Also encouraging is that they’re looking at this quite seriously. “The companies we’ve talked to informally are pretty clear — that’s where their long-term money is going, definitely not nuclear,” one credible source told me today. Where public pressure comes in is to make sure the move toward geothermal happens sooner rather than later, and this begins by launching a comprehensive study of the option — not just in the oil sands, but throughout Canada.

The fact is, oil companies are experts at drilling wells, they have the resources and the skills, so no industry group is better positioned to take advantage of geothermal. And if it works well in Fort McMurray, who knows where else geothermal could be used to replace nuclear?

Just my two cents.