Yesterday, Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that $41.9 million from President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be used for fuel cell market growth. Thirteen projects have been funded, and industry participants will cost share about $72.4 million. Nearly 1,000 fuel cell systems will be deployed with this funding, including key early market emergency backup power and materials handling applications. Also funded are projects involving auxiliary power units for vehicles, electronic power packs, and stationary fuel cells for combined heat and power in residential and commercial markets.
According to the DOE, the funding is intended to “accelerate the commercialization and deployment of fuel cells and will create jobs in fuel cell manufacturing, installation, maintenance, and support services….The increase in manufacturing volume in key early markets will also bring costs down and encourage the growth of a domestic supplier base.”
Latham, NY based company Plug Power was able to take advantage of this funding right away. They announced they have received over $6 M in awards from the DOE funding for their market transformation programs as well as material handling, residential and stationary power applications. Through these projects, Plug has been able to deploy over 300 of their GenDrive units into the field.
As part of the $6 M in awards, the DOE will also fund a three-year project to verify the durability and commercial readiness of Plug Power’s combined heat and power GenSys product, designed for residential and light commercial applications.
We hope to see more news like this soon - the DOE investments truly facilitate expansion and growth within the industry.
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April 17, 2009 @ 11:54 am
Jennifer says...
Hooray!
April 19, 2009 @ 6:50 am
John Trocciola says...
The FC folks ( I have been in some frustrating phone calls with them/us) argue about the virtues of funding H2 fueling stations, telcom backup, forklift trucks while the wind folks have a simple clear message without getting into the weeds ie “We need a better grid”.Let’s compare how much money the two groups get before we take too many bows.Sorry Bob.Vice President Biden Outlines Funding for Smart Grid Initiatives Announces plans for nearly $4 billion in technology deployment, monitoring and viability
Washington, DC – Vice President Joe Biden, on a visit to Jefferson City, Missouri, today with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, detailed plans by the Department of Energy to develop a smart, strong and secure electrical grid, which will create new jobs and help deliver reliable power more effectively with less impact on the environment to customers across the nation. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Vice President outlined plans to distribute more than $3.3 billion in smart grid technology development grants and an additional $615 million for smart grid storage, monitoring and technology viability.
April 24, 2009 @ 11:38 am
Brynne says...
Wow - and another $40 million promised for at least 11 hydrogen stations as part of California’s AB118! Awesome.
April 24, 2009 @ 6:03 pm
snbess says...
In a year where every dollar counts, this is indeed wonderful news and will help get a substantial number of new fuel cell installations with commercial customers on the ground!