Green Energy News | March 25, 2001

March 25, 2001 – Vol.5 No.52

ENERGIES... week of March 25, 2001

NO NEED FOR GRID POWER. After more than a century of construction, much of the world is still not connected to a power grid. Some areas may never be connected, nor need to be.

In a $48 million contract signed with the Philippine and Spanish governments, BP Solar will be bringing electricity to more than 150 remote villages in the Philippines - the largest solar project yet on the planet. Beginning later this year more than 400,000 residents, who have never had access to electricity before, will have solar power for home lighting, to pump water for drinking and irrigation, for schools, community centers and health clinics, and for commercial purposes.

Though U.S. President George Bush once again this week backed away from efforts to stem global warming, citing the potential for damage to the U.S. economy, contracts like these would help the economy of the Philippines, add to the U.S. economy and eliminate the possibility of a least a small portion of the world from ever being totally reliant on greenhouse-gas-producing fuels. U.S based BP Solar has also recently completed two $30 million rural electrification projects, one also in the Philippines and one in Indonesia. For details of the latest project visit BP at http://www.bp.com/pressoffice , and visit BP Solar at http://www.bpsolar.com/ .

FIRST STEP: HOUSE POWER. Hydrogen fuel cells will likely be available for your home before you’ll be able to get one in your car.

U.S. company International Fuel Cells (IFC) will be working with Buderus Heiztechnik of Germany to develop and market fuel cell cogeneration units - heat, hot water and electricity - for home and light commercial applications in Europe. Expected to be ready for testing in 2003, the generators will be based on IFC’s 5 kilowatt unit now in development. The fuel cells will operate on natural gas or propane.

Also looking at the home fuel cell market is another U.S. company H Power. In Finland H Power is testing a residential cogeneration unit with Fortum Oy. The unit installed in a test house is fueled by hydrogen piped in from a nearby chemical plant. The fuel cell will supply all the electricity, heat and hot water for the house which is still connected to the power grid. Excess electricity will be sold back to the utility company.

H Power is also working with Osaka Gas in Japan to develop a 500 watt residential fuel cell cogeneration system. That system will be fueled by natural gas and will use a reformer developed by Osaka to extract hydrogen to feed the device.

CONTINUING FUEL CELL BUSINESS. Though not exactly selling fuel cells commercially, Ballard Power Systems does sell a fair number for development purposes or to power vehicles being built for future use.

Ballard will supply 30 Mark 900 fifth-generation fuel cells to DaimlerChrysler to be used in up to 30 Mercedes-Benz 70-seat Citaro buses. To be deployed for revenue service in ten cities in Europe by 2002, the buses will run on compressed hydrogen stored in roof-mounted tanks, have a range of 125 -155 miles and a top speed of 50 miles per hour.

Also this week, in a contract worth $2.2 million, Ballard sold additional Mark 900 fuel cells to Nissan for automobile research and development. Visit Ballard at http://www.ballard.com/ .