Ballard's Fuel Cell system wins innovation award and fuels several large zero-emission electricity production plants

Ballard has been researching fuel cells for over 10 years and for a long time was focusing on fuel cell powered cars and busses.  It's nice to see them developing utility scale fuel cell systems because honestly that's the best place for fuel cells to be used, in stationary electricity production systems rather than mobile ones like on a car.

What they're describing is way cool - using hydrogen in a fuel cell to produce power, and then make secondary use of the heat produced in the fuel cell to generate steam or heat in buildings or industrial processes.

The only real concern is the source of the hydrogen to run the fuel cell.  Often hydrogen is extracted from natural gas using a steam reforming system.  Hydrogen extracted from a fossil fuel is hardly a good idea, right?  But that's what is often done.  In the three projects listed below the hydrogen source is identified in two:- "byproduct hydrogen" at a "bleach plant", and "steam reformation of biogas coming from a landfill" (e.g. methane).  Both of those are way cool hydrogen sources though in actuality I wonder about whether it's better to just burn the methane rather than go through the steam reformation to get hydrogen to run a fuel cell.

In any case the third project, at a First Energy power plant near Cleveland, it isn't so clear what the hydrogen source is.  Given that it's at a power plant there would be plenty of natural gas on hand to reform and extract the hydrogen.  Sigh.

 

 

Ballard CLEARgen(TM) Fuel Cell System Wins Innovation Award; Seen As Leader in DG Market

VANCOUVER, Oct. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Ballard Power Systems (TSX: BLD) (NASDAQ: BLDP) announced that it is the recipient of Frost & Sullivan's "2011 New Product Innovation Award" in the North American Stationary Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cell category for the Company's unique CLEARgen(TM) multi-megawatt distributed power generation system.

"This award recognizes Ballard's technological leadership and strong market position in the commercialization of PEM fuel cells for distributed energy generation," said Tomasz Kaminski, Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst. "Ballard's solution surpasses the competition in terms of fuel cell durability, product cost and load-following capability, all keys to commercially viable grid-scale solutions."

The New Product Innovation Award is presented to the company that has excelled relative to the following criteria: innovative elements of the product; leveraging leading edge technologies in the product; value added features/benefits of the product; increased customer ROI; and customer acquisition/penetration potential.

John Sheridan, Ballard President and CEO said, "With the CLEARgen(TM) system, our customers can produce clean, reliable power and reduce their demand for grid electricity. This can create significant cost savings, while simultaneously reducing customers' environmental footprint."

Powered by Ballard's proprietary FCgen(TM)-1300 proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, the CLEARgen(TM) system is a complete solution designed to generate clean energy from hydrogen. Modular 500 kilowatt (kW) PowerBanks are combined to produce multiple megawatts (MW's) of zero-emission electricity, with heat created by the system also providing the opportunity for hot water and space heating. The system can operate continuously to meet baseload power needs, or intermittently to provide peak power during times of high demand.

Ballard's early work with CLEARgen(TM) has led to a number of notable contracts, including:

• A 1MW CLEARgen(TM) system, the largest PEM fuel cell system in North America, has been installed at FirstEnergy Corp.'s Eastlake plant, near Cleveland, Ohio for use in a utility load management demonstration project.  FirstEnergy Corp. activates the hydrogen-fuelled generator during periods of peak demand, taking strain off the power grid and ensuring uninterrupted power to customers. Results during the first year of operation have been positive.
• Next year, K2 Pure Solutions will deploy a CLEARgen(TM) system at its bleach plant in Pittsburg, California. The system will convert by-product hydrogen into clean load-following electricity that will partially offset power demand at the state-of-the-art facility.
• Also in 2012, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc. will site a 1MW CLEARgen(TM) system at its sales and marketing headquarters in Torrance, California. The system will provide peak electrical power and heat to a number of locations on Toyota's multi-building campus, utilizing hydrogen produced by steam-reformation of renewable bio-gas generated at a landfill.

Commercialization of the CLEARgen(TM) system is being supported by extending operating life and lowering product cost through a project funded by Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), an arm's-length, not-for-profit corporation created by the Government of Canada.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About Ballard Power Systems

Ballard Power Systems (TSX: BLD) (NASDAQ: BLDP) provides clean energy fuel cell products enabling optimized power systems for a range of applications. Products are based on proprietary esencia(TM) technology, ensuring incomparable performance, durability and versatility. To learn more about Ballard, please visit www.ballard.com.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com.

SOURCE  Frost & Sullivan
CONTACT: Public Relations: Guy McAree, +1-604-412-7919, media@ballard.com; Investor Relations: Lori Rozali, +1-604-412-3195, investors@ballard.com
Web Site: http://www.frost.com

According to Jeremy Rifkin The 'Democratization Of Energy' Will Change Everything

American economist Jeremy Rifkin has a new book out, The Third Industrial Revolution, in which he argues that the current economic woes are a symptom of a deep problem rooted in the dependence on fossil fuels.  Of course that's true and to me it's shocking that it's such an under-recognized problem.  Rather than being symptoms of a temporary economic malaise, the unemployment, rising food prices, rising debt and more are signs that the current world order -- long infused with and defined by fossil fuels -- is collapsing around us.  To understand one should study up on the role of fossil fuels in creating the marvels of our age, and then turn to studying peak oil and the collapsing supply of fossil fuels.

Ask yourself: What does Economics 101 say about "supply and demand".  When demand for some product outstrips supply, the price of that product goes up.  Yes?  Simple economics theory.  What about if that product is a fundamental requirement to keep "the economy" moving?  What if the supply of that product starts diminishing and can never again be increased?  What if a large part of the political leadership is either ignorant of the diminished supply, or in outright denial, and instead of proposing rational solutions continue to promote continued dependance on the fuel whose supply can never be increased?

That's where Peak Oil is leading us.  In Rifkin's book there have been two industrial revolutions, and that a third one is underway as we speak right now.  The third industrial revolution will lead to a grand new era of collaborative business that's more about creative play, peer-to-peer interactivity, social capital, participation in open commons and access to global networks.

The Third Industrial Revolution is the last stage of the great industrial saga and the first stage of the emerging collaborative era rolled together.  Implementation will be forced by diminishing supply of fossil fuel, and enabled by the "democratizing" influence of distributed power generation.  Distributed power generation doesn't require the top down domineering of industrialized power systems.  Somehow Rifkin believes that "we" will automatically implement democratized power as if the powers-that-be will allow it to happen.

The industrial revolutions were powered and enabled into existence by fossil fuels.  It wasn't purely intellectual genius freed from religious domination that created the industrial revolutions.  It was the harnessing of fossil fuels and the huge energy resources stored within them.  Fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas are reservoirs of sequestered carbon and solar energy captured millions of years ago by plants and animals.  Their dead bodies piled up and became trapped underground where natural forces converted their tissues into fossil fuels.

In the 1700's-1800's engineers and industrialists made the first steps to developing technology to mine those fuels, prepare them for industrial use, and use the energy to build vast industrial empires.  It's been a great ride, hasn't it?  However 300 years later and we're now at the mid-point of the fossil fuel resources the planet captured for us.  It's all downhill from here.  That is, the energy available from fossil fuels can only decline from here out.  And the politicians who suggest otherwise ("Drill Baby Drill") are deluded or insane or something.

Rifkin sees this third industrial revolution as a transitionary phase from industriousness to collaborativeness.  Industrial ages are characterized by "values of rigid discipline and hard work, the top-down flow of authority, the importance of financial capital, the workings of the marketplace and private property relations".  This was required by fossil fuels because of the centralized nature of fossil fuel resources.  But as fossil fuel becomes scarcer it's going to force us into a new mode of society.

Rifkin suggests the shift will rely on renewable energy resources (Solar, Wind, Biomass, etc) all of which are available "anywhere".  We won't be reliant on centralized energy resources but distributed ones.

He says "The democratization of energy has profound implications for how we orchestrate the entirety of human life in the coming century."  It means an era of distributed capitalism because energy resources are available everywhere.  He suggests the dispersed energy resources will be collected from everywhere and bundled and shared with others over a distributed "energy internet".

The distributed nature of distributed energy generation supposedly forces lateral power structures rather than the top down domineering ones of the industrial revolutions.

However - as compelling as the vision is, I wonder if the powers-that-be will allow it to take shape that way.  The powers in charge have rarely acted in the interests of individuals, and always acted in the interests of keeping those in power still in power.  Is some of the denialism about energy resource problems due to those in power trying desparately to keep the game going so they can remain in power?

It seems there's a huge interest in undermining the green tech/jobs revolution the Obama Administration wants/ed to unleash.  At the current moment we have another budget showdown in Washington DC and the government grants/loans programs for advanced green transportation technology has a gun held to its head with the Republicans saying we need to stop funding such programs in order to balance the budget.  Developing this kind of technology will act to undermine the old order of fossil fuel dependence.  Electric vehicles participate in the democratized energy system because a home owner can have enough solar panels on their house to fuel their electric car with electricity, and not have to pay anybody a dime for fuel.  Is the threats against electric vehicle technology programs meant to keep us captured by fossil fuel interests for transportation fuel?