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Daimler, Linde plan hydrogen fuel stations – sources
May 31 (Reuters) – German car maker Daimler (DAIGn.DE) and industrial gases company Linde (LING.DE) plan to invest tens of millions of euros in hydrogen fuelling stations in Germany, two people familiar with the matter said.
They told Reuters on Tuesday the plan to build one or two dozen stations in the country is to be announced in Stuttgart, where Daimler is headquartered, on Wednesday.
Carmakers including Daimler, Toyota (7203.T), Ford (F.N) and General Motors (GM.N) joined forces in late 2009 to develop fuel cell vehicles.
Linde and Daimler as well as utility EnBW (EBKG.DE), Austria’s OMV (OMVV.VI) and France’s Total (TOTF.PA) are involved in setting up a fuelling station network that will reach from the Alps to the North Sea. (Reporting by Hendrik Sackmann and Jens Hack; Writing by Maria Sheahan)
FuelCell Energy Announces 70 Megawatt Order From POSCO Power and $9 Million Charge to Second Quarter 2011 Earnings
Multi-Year Order Supports Demand for Ultra-Clean and Efficient Fuel Cell Power Plants to Meet South Korean Renewable Portfolio Standard
Limited Fleet Repair and Upgrade Program to Result in Charge to Second Quarter 2011 Earnings
DANBURY, Conn. — FuelCell Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq:FCEL), a leading manufacturer of ultra-clean, efficient and reliable power plants, today announced a two-year order for 70 megawatts (MW) of fuel cell kits from POSCO Power. The total value of the order and other commitments for services is estimated to be at least $129 million with delivery of fuel cell kits beginning in October 2011 and occurring monthly through October 2013. Payment terms include a down payment and progress payments during the term of the contract, with approximately 40 percent of the contract value received by October, 2011. POSCO Power is an independent power producer in South Korea and subsidiary of POSCO, a global steel producer.
“Fuel cells address the needs of the South Korean market for ultra-clean and efficient power that is generated continuously,” said Soung-Sik Cho, President and CEO, POSCO Power. ”We expect fuel cells to play a significant role in meeting the new and renewable power needs for South Korea under the Renewable Portfolio Standard and we want to ensure that POSCO Power is positioned to meet the demand.”
South Korea adopted a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) in 2010 to promote clean energy, reduce carbon emissions, and develop a local green-industry to promote economic growth. Beginning in 2012, 350 MW of renewable energy per year is mandated through 2016, and 700 MW per year through 2022. Fuel cells operating on natural gas and biogas fully qualify under the RPS and earned a prominent position within the RPS pricing mechanism due to their efficient and reliable generation of ultra-clean power.
“This is the largest order ever received by FuelCell Energy, almost doubling product sales and service backlog and enabling us to maintain production at an annual rate of 55 MW,” said Chip Bottone, President and CEO of FuelCell Energy, Inc. “Higher production levels will drive product costs down further as we achieve manufacturing and purchasing efficiencies.”
“Our relationship with POSCO Power is an excellent example of the market for fuel cells where value is placed on ultra-clean baseload distributed generation and where we have a strong local partner to grow the market,” continued Mr. Bottone.
POSCO Power recently completed construction of a fuel cell module assembly facility, which utilizes FuelCell Energy proprietary fuel cell components. POSCO Power stacks the fuel cell components to create the fuel cell module and adds electrical and mechanical balance of plant to complete the power plant. The POSCO Power fuel cell module assembly and balance of plant facilities are designed for 100 MW annual capacity.
In addition to the revenue generated by the sale of fuel cell kits, FuelCell Energy receives a royalty for each complete power plant built and installed by POSCO Power, under a licensing agreement signed in 2009. Future potential royalty payments to FCE are not included in the $129 million estimated order value.
This announcement follows an order in June 2009 for 30.8 MW of fuel cell modules and components valued at approximately $58 million. Including this order, POSCO Power has ordered 140 MW of fuel cells.
Second Quarter 2011 Charge to Earnings
FuelCell Energy, Inc. has committed to a repair and upgrade program for a select group of 1.2 MW fuel cell modules produced between 2007 and early 2009. Second quarter 2011 earnings will be impacted by a non-recurring charge of approximately $9 million, which will be accounted for as an increase to cost of goods sold. The program will begin in the third quarter of 2011 and no additional charges are anticipated. The estimated cash impact in fiscal 2011 is $3 to $5 million.
The program will ensure that this group of modules is achieving expected performance levels. The performance shortfall is due to the type of sealant and design utilized, not the stack itself. In total, 16 modules totaling 19.2 MW will be affected with 14 of the modules located in South Korea and the remaining two modules located in the USA. Completion of the program is expected by mid-2012.
“We understand the cause of the performance shortfall and are confident that it impacts only a subset of our fleet as different designs and sealant material are used for the remainder of the modules in the fleet,” said Chip Bottone. ”The performance for these 1.2 megawatt modules did not meet our objectives. Subsequent advancements in sealant technology combined with a different design prevent this performance shortfall from occurring in our current generation of 1.4 megawatt fuel cell modules or any of our sub-megawatt modules.”
FuelCell Energy will release second quarter 2011 earnings on June 6, 2011, after the market close. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected.
About FuelCell Energy
DFC® fuel cells are generating power at over 50 locations worldwide. The Company’s power plants have generated over 750 million kWh of power using a variety of fuels including renewable wastewater gas, biogas from beer and food processing, as well as natural gas and other hydrocarbon fuels. FuelCell Energy has partnerships with major power plant developers and power companies around the world. The Company also receives funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and other government agencies for the development of leading edge technologies such as fuel cells. For more information please visit our website at www.fuelcellenergy.com
Ceramic Fuel Cells sells 25 BlueGen units to Ausgrid for Newcastle ‘Smart Grid, Smart City’ project
Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited [AIM/ASX:CFU], a leading developer of high efficiency and low emission electricity generation units for homes and other buildings, today announced it has signed a contract to sell 25 BlueGen gas-to-electricty units to Ausgrid (formerly Energy Australia).
The units will be installed in homes in Newcastle as part of Ausgrid’s ‘Smart Grid, Smart City’ project. The $100 million project, funded by the Australian Government, is Australia’s largest smart grid project.
The 25 BlueGen units – the second largest BlueGen order received by Ceramic Fuel Cells – will be installed in homes over the next few months, generating electricity from natural gas with the world’s highest electrical efficiency, as well as providing hot water for the home.
The ‘Smart Grid, Smart City’ initiative utilises a smart grid – a new type of electricity network that uses advanced communication, sensing and metering that more efficiently manages electricity supply and demand. The initiative is gathering robust information about the costs and benefits of smart grids, and will inform future decisions by government, electricity providers, technology suppliers and consumers across Australia.
The project’s consortium includes CSIRO, IBM Australia, AGL, GE Energy, TransGrid, Newcastle City Council and the NSW Government.
The order from Ausgrid follows the company’s previous purchase of a BlueGen unit for its Smart Home in the Sydney suburb of Newington. Since the unit was installed in August 2010 it has generated 9,283 kilowatts of power and saved 10.4 tonnes of CO2 compared to power from the local grid. Importantly Ausgrid has run the unit in a variety of modes, including constant power and modulating power, to match the typical load of a home. The BlueGen at the Smart Home has been generating about twice as much electricity as the family has been using to run their household appliances and charge an electric vehicle. Any excess electricity generated by the BlueGen has been exported to the grid.
Brendan Dow, Managing Director of Ceramic Fuel Cells, said: “We are delighted that Ausgrid has selected BlueGen units for its ‘Smart Grid, Smart City’ project. The distributed generation of electricity – creating electricity near the place of use, rather than centrally – is an important part of the future of smart grids.”
Ausgrid Managing Director George Maltabarow said: “We’re testing whether adding distributed generation like fuel cells can make the grid more efficient by flattening out peaks in electricity demand, as well as deliver benefits to households.”
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Scooter Trials Start in Kitakyushu

Suzuki and Nippon Steel began trials of a hydrogen fuel cell scooter, using hydrogen generated at Nippon Steel’s Yahata refinery, in Kitakyushu. It is the first trial in Japan of a two-wheeled vehicle using that type of fuel. The issues that must be resolved for the success of the enterprise are a system providing a stable supply of hydrogen and the safety of the tank holding the hydrogen.
The Suzuki Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter is a hybrid, and functions differently depending on whether you’re accelerating (drawing on both battery and fuel cell), cruising (mainly the cell), or idling. It has a range of 217 miles on single tank (350 kms) which is four times the typical range. The scooter uses a PEM fuel cell from the British company Intelligent energy. The scooter has already been undergoing tests by the British Government since Feb 2010. The fueling stations are a part of the Hydrogen Town Project initiated in January 2011 which aims to develop the infrastructure for effectively distributing hydrogen for use in fuel cells at home, offices and vehicles.
UPC-Barcelona Tech team generates hydrogen as an energy source from ethanol and sunlight
A team of researchers from the UPC-Barcelona Tech, the University of Aberdeen (Scotland) and the University of Auckland (New Zealand) uses ethanol and sunlight to generate hydrogen as an energy source. The results of the study have been published in ‘Nature Chemistry’.
A solid photocatalyst is placed in a container with ethanol and exposed to ultraviolet light by agitation, simulating the most energetic part of the solar spectrum. The device contains a titanium dioxide semiconductor that in contact with sunlight generates electrons captured by metallic gold nanoparticles, which react with the alcohol molecules to produce hydrogen. According to Llorca, the semiconductor’s structure and the contact with the nanoparticles are crucial features in the design of the photocatalyst.
The amount of hydrogen and energy generated depends on the amount of catalyst used and the area exposed to solar radiation. Researchers have generated up to 5 litres of hydrogen per kilogram of catalyst in one minute. If 9 kg of catalyst were put in an ethanol tank and exposed to sunlight and the hydrogen generated were used to power a fuel cell, 3 kW of electricity would be obtained, an amount similar to that which is used in a home.
Llorca plans to design reactors with real-life applications such as providing electricity to the home, which he sees as an important step towards introducing hydrogen as an energy vector and gradually gaining independence from fossil fuels. One of the advantages of hydrogen compared with electricity is that it can be stored.
Until now, solar-generated hydrogen techniques have largely relied on water. However, despite water being cheap and abundant, these techniques have garnered poor results and the materials they require are expensive.
As an alternative, the researchers suggest using ethanol, a renewable and economical resource that is easily obtained from agricultural and forest waste (100 grams of glucose generate approximately 50 grams of ethanol).
The photocatalyst is also much cheaper and simpler to use than the materials employed in techniques with water as it uses very small gold particles, ranging in size from 2 to 12 nanometres (1 metre = 1 million nanometres). These nanoparticles capture the free electrons generated when titanium oxide—used as a support base—comes into contact with sunlight.
During the process, which is based on solar energy, the team also discovered that the size of the gold nanoparticles has no influence on the production of hydrogen, unlike what occurs during the more widespread processes in which the catalyst powder must be heated to reaction temperature (usually over 500ºC) and therefore incurs an energy cost.
In addition, the catalyst is more durable because it works at ambient temperature and pressure.
The results of the project were published in Nature Chemistry in an article entitled ‘The effect of gold loading and particle size on photocatalytic hydrogen production from ethanol over Au/TiO2 nanoparticles’.
Dutch hydrogen car: 747 kms per litre

Students of The Hague University of Applied Sciences have won a prize for Europe’s most efficient fuel-efficient city car. The car, which won the first prize at the European Shell Eco Marathon, runs on hydrogen and uses 14 times less energy than the average electrical car.
In all, 183 groups from across Europe, including 11 from the Netherlands, entered the contest, which took place in the German town of Lausitz.
The team from The Hague, which competed as the Hydro Cruisers, were ecstatic. “We are incredibly happy with the result. We’ve been working on this all year long”, says Niels van Etten. Last year the Hydro Cruisers won in the same category, that of city cars, with a car that runs for 747 kilometres on a single litre of fuel.
Extremely efficient
The Dutch team won in the hydrogen category. The biggest winners in Lausitz, however, were the French La Joliverie team, who designed the prototype for a new combustion engine. Thanks to their new design and their extremely efficient driving style, the French succeeded to get the equivalent mileage of 3,688 kilometres on one litre of petrol.
This was the 27the edition of the Shcell Eco Marathon. The event is organised for pupils and students aged between 13 and 26 from high schools, polytechnics and universities.
Super cool
Next year the event will be held in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. The team’s cars will then for the first time compete on public roads rather than a race track. Hydro Cruiser Niels van Etten is upbeat: “It’s super cool that we’ll defend our European record in front of a home crowd. It’s an additional incentive to make our car even more efficient.”












