Fuel Cell

By Jeff Siegel It was boasted as an energy breakthrough. Bloom Energy's Bloom Box paraded around the media  including a very generous piece aired by 60 Minutes as some kind of new, game-changing magical energy creation device that would change the world. Problem is, it's not really “new.” And it's certainly not going to change the world. But don't tell that to the folks who are looking to take the company public, perhaps as soon as this year. Now, I'm not saying a Bloom Energy IPO would fail. In fact, based on the hype surrounding the...

Ford Motor Co. will begin testing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) in October in California, Florida, Michigan and British Columbia, Canada, the firm said yesterday.

by Debra Fiakas, CFA Most investors, if they have heard of Hydrogenics Corporation (HYGS: Nasdaq) at all, consider them a fuel cell producer. However, about two-thirds of the company’s revenue comes from the design and manufacture of hydrogen generation products based on water electrolysis technology - a somewhat unique, but valuable electrochemical technology that could make important contributions to the world’s future energy base. Electrolysis or the splitting of water molecules using an electric current produces hydrogen and oxygen - two elements that have market potential in a variety of industrial and power markets. It stands in...

by Debra Fiakas CFA This afternoon FuelCell Energy, Inc. (FCEL:  Nasdaq) is scheduled to report results for its fiscal third quarter ending July 2012.  As its corporate name suggests the company produces fuel cells for use as power plants or grid alternatives.  FuelCell has customers, but has yet to reach profitability.  No embarrassment there.  None of the other U.S.-based fuel cell producers has delivered earnings to shareholders either and two have had to file for bankruptcy protection. Journalists have made light of fuel cell developers as perpetually unprofitable.  Last year one even made a list of profitable...

Plug Power Inc (PLUG) announced that it is terminating a distribution joint venture with a unit of General Electric Co. and said a GE executive had resigned from its board. Plug Power said it and GE MicroGen Inc. would terminate the GE Fuel Cell Systems joint venture. As a result, Plug Power can now sell its products to anyone without obligation to General Electric, the company said in a regulatory filing. Shares of Plug Power are down 1% in pre-market trading.

Before you invest in a technology, you should learn how that technology works. You can learn about Fuel Cells at the excellent How Stuff Works website using the following link: How Fuel Cells Work They also have a good description of How Fuel Processors Work.

From Small Fries to Big Shots? (Pt. 2 of 2) Bill Paul Here now are two more small alternative energy companies, both of which look to be just starting to hit their stride. How far they'll go only time will tell, but each seems to warrant a closer look. Take note: like the vast number of other pure-play alternative energy firms with intriguing growth prospects, neither of these is U.S.-based. Rule of thumb: whether you're a big institutional or small individual investor, to succeed in alternative energy, you must scour every corner of the earth. First up: CBD Energy,...

Millennium Cell Inc (MCEL) said that Dow Chemical Co. bought $1.3 million of its convertible preferred stock, the latest step in their joint development agreement. The two companies are working to develop portable fuel cell systems for use in consumer electronics and military applications. Under their three-year joint program, which began in 2005, Millennium Cell will grant stock to Dow as it achieves certain milestones, as well as give Dow the opportunity to buy more stock.

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....

Mechanical Technology Inc (MKTY) announced an exclusive alliance with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., ("Samsung"), a technology innovator in the telecommunications industry, to develop next-generation fuel cell prototypes for Samsung's mobile phone business. Mobion®, MTI Micro's patented direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) technology, has been chosen to power a series of prototypes designed for Samsung's mobile phone and mobile phone accessories. Samsung is going to be committing up to $1 million in development money for the project and it marks a large step forward in the future development of the micro fuel cell marketplace. I also see this...

About 4 or 5 years ago micro fuel cells were quite a hot topic in cleantech. They were going to power our laptops, cell phones, PDAs, blackberries, hand held multimedia devices, etc. The story ran like this: The digital age and increasing customer demand for more power hungry features like bandwidth, multimedia, et al on mobile devices like laptops, PDAs and cellphones mean the increase in power requirements are outstripping the pace of technology of lithium ion battery - therefore the only solutions will be micro fuel cells. And since battery manufacturers are a plodding, unimaginative lot,...

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 received orders to supply electrolysis-based hydrogen generator plants to two of China's largest energy companies. China Electric Power Energy Group and China National Power have each purchased a HySTAT-A Hydrogen Plant, capable of producing 10 Nm3/h of high purity hydrogen at a pressure of 25 bar. In both cases, the hydrogen produced will be used to cool the generators in a coal-fired power plant. Delivery of both orders is expected to take place in 2006.

Renewable energy like wind and solar power and hydrogen fuel cells could blossom into a $100 billion a year global market in less than a decade as technology costs fall, according to a study. The combined market for "green" sources of energy has already grown 68 percent since 2002 to more than $16 billion last year, according to Clean Edge, a research and publishing firm based in California. You can view and download the complete Clean-Energy Trends report at the following link.

"America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world" Thanks to Mr. Bush's state of the union address last night, we should see some nice gains across the board in the Alternative Energy sector. Some of the big winners may be the Ethanol companies like Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (PEIX). The EnergyStockBlog.com has a nice write up on the potential for ADM. GreenCarCongress.com has a nice summary of the important parts of the speech. In his State of the Union 2006 address, President...

Bill Paul Having been a Wall Street Journal energy and environment reporter, one of the first experts I would have called before running a story on privately-held solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) developer Bloom Energy would have been Neal Dikeman, who in addition to being a prominent alternative energy investor and the writer of an authoritative blog on clean technology, was involved in developing a fuel cell company. But as Dikeman posted lasted week – Saving Cleantech: Bloom town Silicon Valley? – he didn’t get a call from the folks at CBS’s 60 Minutes, so the raft of legitimate technical...