News

Fuelcell Energy Inc (FCEL) and LOGANEnergy Corp have joined forces to develop and sell commercial fuel cell power plants, with a focus on megawatt-class systems. The two companies have signed a Market Development Agreement whereby FuelCell Energy will provide the power plants along with related engineering and technical support. LOGAN will contribute its expertise in developing fuel cell power plants for commercial and industrial customers, along with site-specific duties such as permitting, utility interconnections and power plant installation.

Enova Systems Inc (ENVA)announced today that it has entered into a development and sales agreement with China's First Auto Works (FAW) for parallel hybrid drive systems for their hybrid buses. FAW signed a two-phase development agreement with Enova for hybrid-electric motors and power controllers for its newest hybrid buses. Enova is working with both FAW and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) of Texas to integrate and validate the new Enova parallel hybrid drive system for these buses.

ReliOn, the leading provider of high reliability fuel cell solutions for backup power applications, announced that Celestica Inc (CLS), a world leader in electronics manufacturing services (EMS), will serve as EMS provider for ReliOn's fuel cell products going forward. ReliOn is a privately funded Washington corporation. However, as their business grows, their OEM partners will grow as well.

IDACORP (IDA) is a holding company that has businesses in electrical generation, financial services, and telecommunications services. The IdaTech division that focuses on production of fuel cell systems has recently signed an Italian firm to represent them in the Italian market. Press Release Monday June 28, 8:00 am ET IdaTech has entered into an agency agreement with Italian energy engineering firm, RENCO S.p.A (RENCO) for the market development and distribution of IdaTech's fuel cell systems and hydrogen generation products. IDA is a well run utility paying a 4% dividend. They have recently crossed back over their...

California officials are proposing that half of all new homes in the state be running on solar energy in 10 years, an effort spurred by $100 million in annual incentives paid for by electricity consumers. This type of legislation would be a boon for the solar energy companies in California. In related news Kyocera Corp (KYO) announced today that it will begin large-scale assembly of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules this fall at its maquiladora facility in Tijuana, Mexico, with plans to establish a regional office in San Diego for solar system engineering and marketing.

Jeff, one of our readers alerted me to an announcement that is definitley worth sharing. Hydrogen Engine Center, Inc., one of the stocks (HYEG) on the stocks page made an announcement that they will be working with Sawtelle & Rosprim to design and build the world's first Ammonia Fueled Irrigation Pump System. This is intended to help California meet its new emissions requirements scheduled to go into effect in 2010. Hydrogen Engine Center, (HEC), is building a prototype system based on HEC's ammonia-fuelled engines and Sawtelle's pumps. They want to test the prototype for the California irrigation...

Western GeoPower Corp (WGPWF) has received approval to start drilling on their new Geothermal energy operation facility at South Meager in Canada. This new facility could amount to over 100 MW capacity. GeoPower expects to have the South Meager plant ready for commercial generation by mid-2007.

Vectrix debut their fuel-cell-equipped prototype at the Fuel Cell Seminar in Miami Beach, Fla. in November of this year. They plan to bring this new scooter to market by 2006. Vectrix is 50% owned by Parker Hannifin Corp (PH). Hannifin provides the compressor that is twice as efficient and twice as durable as competing technologies. Parker Hannifin engineers say that it could serve as a cathode air compressor or as a hydrogen recirculation pump on all kinds of fuel cells, both in vehicles and stationary power applications. They are also utilizing battery technology...

Intelligent Energy Inc., a leading energy solutions business, today announces that it has successfully completed trials of its ethanol based fuel cell technology system. These trials show that sufficient electricity can be generated for a rural home from equipment little larger than a shoebox, using fuel derived from sugar cane.

On September 1, 2004, the Portland Oregon Visitors Association (POVA) is scheduled to become the nation's first convention and visitors bureau (CVB) to launch a website 100 percent powered by solar energy. That's right, in a city renowned for its lush, abundant rainfall, the local CVB's website— www.travelportland.com —is transitioning to a completely solar-powered energy source.

 That Polyanna of energy price prediction, the International Energy Agency (IEA), issued a new report today which, while it still does not acknowledge peak oil, predicts a supply crunch in the 2010-12 time range. Despite four years of high oil prices, this report sees increasing market tightness beyond 2010, with OPEC spare capacity declining to minimal levels by 2012,'' the IEA said in its Medium-Term Oil Market Report, which is published every six months. ``Low OPEC spare capacity and slow non-OPEC production growth are of significant concern I was blown away... as were most energy stocks today....

An editorial article from South Carolina's TheState.com expresses concern for funding for Fuel Cell research. The guess columnist expresses his concerns and feels that they would be better served looking at Biomass alternatives. An abstract of this opinion article is show below, with a link to the full story. A growing group of distinguished scientists sees the “hydrogen economy� as a ruse ��? a distraction from the much more viable alternative of biofuels. Nor has the hydrogen illusion escaped the notice of astute investors, as the major fuel-cell companies have seen their share prices drop by half...

FuelCell Energy, Inc. (FCEL), a leading manufacturer of stationary fuel cell power plants for distributed generation, today announced that it will be providing a 250-kilowatt Direct FuelCell(R) (DFC(R)) power plant as part of a temporary distributed generation micro-grid for the Democratic National Convention to be held at the Fleet Center in Boston July 26-29, 2004. The Company's DFC300A power plant will operate on natural gas supplied by Keyspan Energy and will be combined with generators to provide power for the Fleet Center and media stations. FuelCell Energy's DFC power plant, which generates electricity electrochemically and without combustion, will produce...

Medis Technologies Ltd. (MDTL) announced today that it has been issued a new patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (U.S. Patent #6,758,871 "Liquid Fuel Compositions for Electrochemical Fuel Cells") for its proprietary fuel. This is the third U.S. patent issued with respect to the fuel used in Medis' proprietary fuel cell technology and this patent relates to the composition of that fuel. Additional patents that cover other aspects of the fuel and its use in Medis' fuel cell are still pending.

AutoWeek has an article about one man's quest to travel the entire United States using anything but gasoline to power his variety of alternative fuel vehicles. Featured are bio-diesel Hummers and RVs, a solar-powered canoe, and an poop-powered scooter

Sumitomo Corporation has announced that is has obtained Japan's first certification for a 700-bar (10,000psi) pressurized hydrogen storage system for fuel cell vehicles in collaboration with Suzuki in July 2004. The hydrogen storage system that Sumitomo is using is produced by Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc (QTWW). This is the third country where Quantum hydrogen storage system has been approved for use.