August 14th 2002
Ebara To Sell Japan 1st Stand-Alone Fuel Cells in Feb
Source:Nikeii
Ebara Corp. (J.EBA or 6361) will in February become Japan's first company to sell stand-alone fuel cells for the mass market, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in its Wednesday morning edition, citing company sources.
The so-called Nexa fuel cell, which obtains hydrogen from a cylinder, can supply electric power for long periods of time, making it a useful emergency power source, the sources said, according to the report.
The device has a 900w output, enough to meet the power needs of a typical house. Ebara will import key components from Ballard Power Systems Inc. (BLDP) of Canada and assemble them at its plant in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, next to Tokyo.
The company has already begun sample shipments through Ebara Ballard Corp., a Tokyo joint venture. It plans to set the price at Y3million or lower when it starts full-scale marketing next year, the financial daily reported.
The 64kg cell is portable and requires no special installation work, the sources said. The company expects demand for the fuel cells as a backup power source at communications facilities owned by railroad operators and power utilities. It targets annual sales of several hundred units.
Stand-alone fuel cells for home use require a device to extract hydrogen from city gas or kerosene, which fuel cells of that kind use as fuel.
Toshiba Corp. (J.TOS or 6502), Sanyo Electric Co. (SANYY or 6764) and other electric machinery manufacturers that plan to release stand-alone fuel cells in fiscal 2004 are racing to develop this key device.
Unlike its rivals, Ebara decided as a first step to introduce
a cylinder-type cell that does not require the extraction device. The company
aims to capture 40% of the domestic market for stand-alone fuel cells in
2010, the report said .
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