News

The impact of Katrina to the gulf coast has caused a corresponding impact to the cost of energy. Up to 90% of output from the Gulf Of Mexico remains closed today and the uncertainty surrounding how long it will take to get back online drove crude oil prices above $70. This region supplies approximately 25% of all US energy and is home to nearly 10% of US refinery capacity. This short term impact on the cost of oil has many of the Alternative Energy stocks up with double digit percent gains yesterday. Be very careful at this...

PolyFuel announced additional funding for their portable fuel cell technology. They are currently a privately held company backed by several venture capital firms. I'm keeping this company on my radar screen because these venture firms will eventually want to take this company public. Here is an excerpt from this most recent PR announcement. Click the link to read the full press release. PolyFuel, Inc., the world leader in membrane technology for portable fuel cells, today announced it has closed an $18.4 million, third round of funding, bringing total investment in the 5-year-old startup to approximately $40 million....

 That Polyanna of energy price prediction, the International Energy Agency (IEA), issued a new report today which, while it still does not acknowledge peak oil, predicts a supply crunch in the 2010-12 time range. Despite four years of high oil prices, this report sees increasing market tightness beyond 2010, with OPEC spare capacity declining to minimal levels by 2012,'' the IEA said in its Medium-Term Oil Market Report, which is published every six months. ``Low OPEC spare capacity and slow non-OPEC production growth are of significant concern I was blown away... as were most energy stocks today....

Sumitomo Corporation has announced that is has obtained Japan's first certification for a 700-bar (10,000psi) pressurized hydrogen storage system for fuel cell vehicles in collaboration with Suzuki in July 2004. The hydrogen storage system that Sumitomo is using is produced by Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc (QTWW). This is the third country where Quantum hydrogen storage system has been approved for use.

Here is a round-up of some news and information I have come across in my readings: Venture Capital in Alternative Energy Rob May at CleanTechVC made a great post about venture capital investments in energy technologies.Here are some excerpts from his post: US energy technology VC investments are at $1.7B so far in 2006 compare this with $0.9B for all of 2005 solar tech has received more than 10% of all energy technology VC investments so far this year. Interestingly, while investments in fuel cell technology have been generally flat or dropping over the past...

AutoWeek has an article about one man's quest to travel the entire United States using anything but gasoline to power his variety of alternative fuel vehicles. Featured are bio-diesel Hummers and RVs, a solar-powered canoe, and an poop-powered scooter

IDACORP (IDA) is a holding company that has businesses in electrical generation, financial services, and telecommunications services. The IdaTech division that focuses on production of fuel cell systems has recently signed an Italian firm to represent them in the Italian market. Press Release Monday June 28, 8:00 am ET IdaTech has entered into an agency agreement with Italian energy engineering firm, RENCO S.p.A (RENCO) for the market development and distribution of IdaTech's fuel cell systems and hydrogen generation products. IDA is a well run utility paying a 4% dividend. They have recently crossed back over their...

Jeff, one of our readers alerted me to an announcement that is definitley worth sharing. Hydrogen Engine Center, Inc., one of the stocks (HYEG) on the stocks page made an announcement that they will be working with Sawtelle & Rosprim to design and build the world's first Ammonia Fueled Irrigation Pump System. This is intended to help California meet its new emissions requirements scheduled to go into effect in 2010. Hydrogen Engine Center, (HEC), is building a prototype system based on HEC's ammonia-fuelled engines and Sawtelle's pumps. They want to test the prototype for the California irrigation...

Western GeoPower Corp (WGPWF) has received approval to start drilling on their new Geothermal energy operation facility at South Meager in Canada. This new facility could amount to over 100 MW capacity. GeoPower expects to have the South Meager plant ready for commercial generation by mid-2007.

Pacific Fuel Cell Corp (PFCE)announced that it has been selected by the United States Department of Energy for a Phase I STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) grant. The intended start date is September 1, 2004. I can't seem to find a website for Pacific Fuel Cell corp. I can't believe a publicly held company doesn't have a website. Post a comment if you can find it.

An editorial article from South Carolina's TheState.com expresses concern for funding for Fuel Cell research. The guess columnist expresses his concerns and feels that they would be better served looking at Biomass alternatives. An abstract of this opinion article is show below, with a link to the full story. A growing group of distinguished scientists sees the “hydrogen economy� as a ruse ��? a distraction from the much more viable alternative of biofuels. Nor has the hydrogen illusion escaped the notice of astute investors, as the major fuel-cell companies have seen their share prices drop by half...

Citing recent success in alternative power, GE Energy, a subsidiary of General Electric Co (GE) is hoping to boost its solar energy sales to $1 billion annually by the end of the decade, the head of GE's solar business said.

Fuelcell Energy Inc (FCEL) and LOGANEnergy Corp have joined forces to develop and sell commercial fuel cell power plants, with a focus on megawatt-class systems. The two companies have signed a Market Development Agreement whereby FuelCell Energy will provide the power plants along with related engineering and technical support. LOGAN will contribute its expertise in developing fuel cell power plants for commercial and industrial customers, along with site-specific duties such as permitting, utility interconnections and power plant installation.

Ford engineers have equipped the Ford Focus C-MAX with a prototype hydrogen internal combustion engine (H2 ICE). The vehicle was unveiled on July 12th at the Research Conference of the German Car Manufacturer Association (VDA) in Stuttgart, which was attended by the German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. The Ford fuel cell team has been using the Ballard Power (BLDP) fuel cell stacks for their line of fuel cell cars.

Hydrogenics Corp (HYGS) announced that it has entered into a five-year agreement with Deere & Company (DE) to continue research and development efforts in the use of hydrogen and fuel cells in commercial vehicles. The five-year agreement incorporates both qualitative and quantitative commitments, and builds on the success of earlier joint projects involving the integration of Hydrogenics' HyPM(TM) fuel cell power module technology into Deere vehicles.

Intelligent Energy Inc., a leading energy solutions business, today announces that it has successfully completed trials of its ethanol based fuel cell technology system. These trials show that sufficient electricity can be generated for a rural home from equipment little larger than a shoebox, using fuel derived from sugar cane.