Another company that’s overlooked by U.S. media is Ottawa-based Cyrium Technologies, which just announced record performance from its commercially manufactured multi-junction solar cells, which are based on quantum dot technology. “Cyrium’s first generation solar cells offer efficiencies of 40 per cent or higher together with a nearly constant conversion efficiency for solar concentrations from 200 to greater than 1,000 suns,” the company said. This is a big deal, given that the other “records” touted to date, which range from 40.8 to 42.8 conversion efficiency (these claims are in dispute — see Wikipedia entry), have been limited to the lab. Cyrium, on the other hand, is actually manufacturing limited quantities of its cells for testing by potential customers. And the company isn’t resting on its laurels, either. “Cyrium anticipates its second generation product will reach 43 per cent efficiency within one year and third generation products are targeted to be at 45 per cent within two years,” the company said.

Meanwhile, Montreal-based Enerkem has been granted a permit to commence construction of what it’s calling the “world’s first commercial municipal waste-to-biofuels facility.” The $70 million facility, located in Edmonton, Alberta, will take municipal solid waste that’s left over after recycling and composting and will convert that waste into ethanol using Enerkem’s process. The project is a joint-venture between Enerkem (technology supplier) and Greenfield Ethanol (ethanol producer). “This unprecedented project is set to change the dynamics of the waste and fuel industries by making waste — that would otherwise be landfilled — a resource for transportation fuels,” said Enerkem CEO Vincent Chornet. I know I won’t be the only one following this project closely.

Finally, honorable mention goes to Toronto-based WhalePower, which has just made it as a finalist at the prestigious INDEX international design competition in Copehagen, Denmark. You may recall WhalePower’s new wind-turbine blade design, which is inspired by the humpback whale’s tubercle-line flipper. This bumpy leading edge gives the whale more agility in water. WhalePower has adapted the design to turbine blades, allowing for more efficient capture of wind energy and access to this energy at lower speeds. There are five categories in the Copenhagen competition, and the winner of each category gets 100,000 Euros. Winners will be selected in August and the winning designs will also become part of a touring show through Asia and Europe. WhalePower is competing in the “community” category against some tough competition, including Shai Agassi’s Better Place.

But enough with the bragging Canuck — let’s end on a more negative note. First Ballard Power’s stock-market bubble burst, then it sold off its stake in the automobile fuel-cell portion of its business, and now it’s leaving the residential micro-CHP market. Vancouver-based Ballard announced today it was dissolving its joint-venture with Japan’s EBARA Corporation, which through EBARA Ballard Corp. manufactured, sold, and serviced residential cogeneration systems based on Ballard’s fuel-cell technology. The business case just wasn’t there, said Ballard CEO John Sheridan. With the micro-CHP market now dumped, that leaves forklifts and backup power for telecom towers. You’ve got to credit Sheridan for keeping it focused and realistic, but it’s difficult not to contrast the humbled company of today with the overhyped, overvalued Ballard of 10 to 15 years ago.

For the forever-emerging fuel cell industry, this is a major deal. “The 10,000-unit volume will enable significant cost reductions and this new low cost, natural gas fuel cell product will be an important enabler for the acceleration of product adoption in other stationary power markets,” said Ballard CEO John Sheridan, who as former president of Bell Canada appreciates more than most the potential of using fuel cells in the telecom industry.

The first 1,000 units will be delivered in 2009, with the other 9,000 delivered the following year. Ballard is right to focus its energies on the stationary power market, given the tremendous need for energy storage on both a small and large scale. It seems like only yesterday when I was enjoying lunch with former Ballard chairman and CEO Firoz Rasul talking about the mass-market availability of fuel-cell cars in 2010. Oh, how naive I was back then. I remember chatting with the head of Canada’s fuel cell association as he talked about the importance of going after automobile fuel-cell applications first, because “once we get that right everything else flows from there.”

Um, not exactly. What I’ve learned since then is that fuel cells will play a growing role in a greener economy, but it won’t be “the” economy — i.e. the Rifkin hydrogen economy. And it won’t, despite the crazy lectures from Honda, be in the passenger vehicles most people drive. Too much has happened in the cleantech world since that lunch with Rasul, and the hydrogen infrastructure problem isn’t any closer to being solved five years later. At the same time, if deals like the one with ACME and Idatech help a company like Ballard lower production costs of stationary fuel cells, there’s a greater chance we could see these devices in our homes and businesses and integrated in the smart grid in a not-so-distant future.