President Barack Obama and Green Technology Investment

3. Fuel Cells

Well, I don't believe that climate change is just an issue that's convenient to bring up during a campaign. I believe it's one of the greatest moral challenges of our generation.
- Barack Obama (2007)

If elected, Barack Obama will be the greenest president ever in the White House. His policies include:

1. Invest $150 billion over 10 years in clean energy.

2. Reduce carbon emissions 80 per cent by 2050.

3. Double energy research and development funding.

4. Create a Clean Technologies Venture Capital Fund, funded at $10 billion per year for five years.

5. Require that 25 per cent of electricity be from renewable sources by 2025.

Here, over several parts, is a brief guide to the investment implications for the cleantech sector.

Fuel Cells

In its "Clean Energy Trends 2008" report, the Clean Edge research group forecasts that fuel cell business will surge from an estimated $1.5 billion in 2007 - which it describes as "primarily for research contracts and demonstration and test units" - to $16 billion in 2017.

This will be a considerably faster growth rate than for the three other main sources of clean energy - wind power, biofuels and solar power - although they will still have higher sales than will fuel cells.

The most promising applications to date are cogeneration systems - fuel cells for dual home heating and power - and portable fuel systems for the military. However, few companies at present are making much money from fuel cells.

One of the leaders in fuel cells is Ballard Power Systems of Canada, which is focusing on fuel cells for materials handling (such as forklift vehicles), for industrial back-up power systems - particularly for the telecommunications sector - and for residential cogeneration, in partnership with Japanese engineering firm Ebara.

FuelCell Energy supplies fuel cells to commercial, industrial, municipal and utility customers in several countries. It has boosted production substantially and cut costs.

HydroGen is working to commercialize fuel cell technology that has been developed by Westinghouse Corporation, particularly for industrial applications.

Hydrogenics is another Canadian company that develops and manufactures hydrogen and fuel cell products, with a focus on industrial applications and on the materials handling and back-up system sectors.

Plug Power specializes in fuel cell systems for back-up applications and for remote telecommunication plants.

Protonex Technology is a US company, although its stock market listing is in the UK. It specializes in smaller fuel cell devices aimed at applications such as recreational vehicles, marine power, camping and back-up systems.

Four companies actively involved in military fuel cell research are Mechanical Technology, Medis Technologies, Millennium Cell and Neah Power Systems.

June 18th, 2008