Friday, July 30, 2010

Worlds largest fuel cell generation system being tested in Ohio!

Diagram of a PEM fuel cellImage via Wikipedia
Retirefund News:  
World's Largest Hydrogen Fuel Cell Generator
Companies Mentioned: BLD, BLDP
Ballard Power Systems goes BIG!
It's the size of a tractor trailer, it's on wheels and completely transportable, with the capacity to power a small town. And now the world's largest hydrogen fuel cell - one of the world's cleanest and greenest sources of energy - will soon be on its way from Burnaby, B.C., to Eastlake, Ohio for a five year trial run - the first ever deployment of its kind.

 Ballard Power Systems (TSX: BLD; NASDAQ: BLDP) today announced the successful completion, during second quarter, of factory testing of a utility-scale distributed generation system using the company's proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. Installation and commissioning of the system for a multi-year demonstration at FirstEnergy Generation Corp's Eastlake Plant in Ohio is planned for third quarter of this year. FirstEnergy Generation Corp. is a subsidiary of Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE).
Ballard designed the generator to provide clean energy peaking capacity, which is particularly useful during heavy energy demand periods in the summer months, and tested the generator to a power level of one megawatt. Because fuel cells use hydrogen to produce electricity - with heat and water as by-products - this technology is a more environmentally-friendly means of generating power than diesel or coal alternatives. In addition, the Ballard generator is transportable so it can be relocated to other sites on a seasonal basis.
"We are pleased to have passed this key customer milestone," said Michael Goldstein, Ballard's Chief Commercial Officer. "Once commissioned, this will be an important 'first' for us, meeting a key 2010 Ballard growth milestone and further demonstrating the benefits of fuel cell systems for clean distributed generation applications in the energy sector."

It is believed that, when the generator is commissioned and operating at the FirstEnergy Generation Corp. facility, it will be the largest PEM fuel cell generator deployed worldwide. 

This information follows on the heels of Plug Powers announcement to extend it's partnership with Ballard Power through 2014. Ballard will exclusively supply fuel cell stacks for Plug Power's f
ull suite of GenDrive™ power units. In addition, Plug Power will become the exclusive systems integrator for Ballard’s fuel cell stack into solutions addressing the material handling market in North America. (fork lifts etc.) Ballard is supplying 10,000 generators to India for their wireless power generation system, and has partners in europe developing fuel cell generation in Scandinavia.


Ballard has also partnered with the U.S. military to build low heat, low noise generators, a must for defense dept.







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. To learn more about Ballard, please visit www.ballard.com.
CONTACT: Investor Relations: Lori Rozali, Work: +1.604.412.3195, investors@ballard.com; Public Relations: Guy McAree, Work: +1.604.412.7919, media@ballard.com 


Ballard to supply quiet, low heat generators to U.S. Military
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