Originally published April 21 2005
Fuel cells are popping up in niche areas rather than small electronics and cars
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Though the fuel cell industry expected fuel cells to start appearing in small electronics and automobiles first, they are actually showing up unusual places, such as recreational vehicles, residential power generators, and industrial equipment first. The appearances in niche markets are unexpected, but they are perfectly understandable considering the current cost of fuel cells. Fuel cells compete with batteries in the small electronics market, and there is already plenty of competition driving down prices in this area. Also, fuel cell technology is still too expensive to put into automobiles and there is still no infrastructure to support them. Thus, less saturated markets are much more open to this new technology.
While many expected fuel cells to reach consumer electronics first, many companies are coming out with fuel cells for industrial uses, recreational vehicles, and home generators.
The first commercially available fuel cells weren�(TM)t for laptops.
The system is the second version of the product.
Nuvera Fuel Cells said last month it will take orders for its 5-kW PowerFlow hydrogen fuel-cell system for industrial applications, such as material handling, ground support equipment, construction, mining, forestry, and utility vehicles, starting April 11.
Germany�(TM)s Smart Fuel Cell launched a direct methanol fuel cell for recreational vehicles and industrial equipment, A25, as early as 2003.
The company came out with a more powerful second version, A50, last year.
New York City�(TM)s MTI MicroFuel Cells in December announced it had shipped fuel cells to warehousing gear vendor Intermec Technologies for use in radio frequency identification (RFID) readers.
Consumer uses In the meantime, companies such as Toshiba, Medis Technologies, and Smart Fuel Cell don�(TM)t expect to introduce fuel cells for consumer-electronics applications until later this year.
Farah Saeed, program manager for backup power solutions for Frost & Sullivan, said part of the reason that industrial, niche technologies have become early fuel-cell adopters are that many of those technologies are themselves experimental.
Trying something new is less of a risk for them than for laptop and cell-phone manufacturers, which are in highly competitive markets, she said.
The cost of fuel cells just isn�(TM)t low enough for laptops and cell phones, at least not yet, she added.
Many of them are also battery manufacturers involved in the highly competitive lithium-ion and lithium-ion-polymer markets, she said.
Take the press release from Toshiba, which in March announced a nanotechnology breakthrough allowing it to dramatically reduce recharging times for its lithium-ion batteries.
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