Clean Break » fuel cells

Hydrogen economy? Maybe not, but Ballard Power is surviving just the same

Tyler — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 02:44:17 +0000

My Clean Break column in the Toronto Star today takes a look at a former darling of the fuel-cell industry, Ballard Power — remember those guys? Ballard was the hot kid on the block back in the late 1990s, when people still bought the idea that a hydrogen economy built around fuel-cell vehicles was just around the corner and Ballard would take us there. The vision was tempting. There are no greenhouse-gas emissions, no pollutants associated with the use of hydrogen to energize a fuel-cell car. Ballard also had — and still has — great technology. Unfortunately, it was really expensive, and the hydrogen infrastructure to support the introduction of fuel-cell vehicles just didn’t exist, nor was there a rush to make it happen. The company had its believers, including yours truly, and investors were also along for the ride. Ten years ago, the money-losing company had a market cap of more than $8 billion. But as we entered the 21st century, as it became clear that the hydrogen economy was a far-off target, and as excitement grew around battery-powered vehicles, Ballard started its downward spiral. In 2007 it sold off its automotive fuel-cell business and decided to focus on less sexy markets: forklifts and backup power. The company is still losing money, but it may actually break even next year, at least on an EBITDA basis. Revenues are growing. Costs are coming down. It turns out that niche markets can pay the bills. And now the company, a sliver of its former self (in terms of market value) is turning its efforts to distributed generation with a 1-megawatt product that makes oodles of sense, particularly in remote markets that are heavily dependent on diesel generators.

I’m delighted that Ballard is finding its way. It has inspired many spinoffs. It anchors the Vancouver cleantech scene. It’s the rock star that hit it big, rose quickly, then crashed into relative obscurity, only to emerge several years later with a more mature album that, while not having mass-market appeal, is critically acclaimed and attracting loyal followers.

UOIT researchers develop cheaper membrane material for PEM fuel cells

Tyler — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 14:03:35 +0000

There’s still a bright future for fuel cells, even if the hydrogen economy won’t turn out as many had expected. But fuel cell costs, though they have come down substantially over the years, are still too high for a number of reasons. One is the membrane material in the fuel cells, which today are quite expensive to make and don’t operate efficiently at temperatures under 80 degrees C. Researchers at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology say they’ve developed a new membrane material that is cheap to produce and can function at temperatures ranging from 120 to 150 degrees C, a level that the U.S. Department of Energy is targeting for next-generation fuel cells. Bit by bit, the fuel cell is getting better and cheaper…

Ballard: a sliver of sunshine on another stormy day

Tyler — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:28:44 +0000

Working in the business section of Canada’s largest daily newspaper, I have to say it’s been tough watching the markets. If you think the U.S. has been getting battered, Canada’s commodity-heavy exchanges are getting crushed. So on yet another day that oil sands and potash producers got their teeth knocked out, it was great to see Ballard Power standing out from the crowd with a 4 per cent gain yesterday. The Vancouver-based fuel cell developer, no stranger to tough times, announced it had landed a contract that will see 10,000 5-kilowatt fuel cell units sold to India’s ACME Group and IdaTech, which will form a joint venture aimed at deploying the fuel cells for back-up power in the telecom industry.

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.