Burnaby, British Columbia
www.ballard.com
Ballard Power Systems scored headlines in April 1997, when it sold a 25% stake to Daimler-Benz. It was chump change for the giant carmaker, but the investment ignited talk that hydrogen-based fuel-cell technology might hold the key to a viable, clean-burning alternative to the classic combustion engine.
Not surprisingly, Ballard's deal sparked a burst of new competition, as Daimler and other automakers placed bets across the alternative energy spectrum -- investing in hybrids, cleaner-burning diesel engines, and a range of hydrogen-powered systems. "Our biggest challenge now," says Ballard CEO Dennis Campbell, "is simply to stay on top of our game in terms of the core technology."
Ballard's fuel cells ingest hydrogen and oxygen, which chemically react with a membrane that throws off electricity. The appeal: The only by-product of the process is water. Ballard demonstrated the concept for autos in the early 1990s. Since then, it has focused on making the basic cell technology run as efficiently and durably as possible.
A decade later, fuel cells haven't yet changed the energy world. Cost, endurance, and extreme temperatures all still pose hurdles to commercialization. But on February 17, Ballard unveiled studies showing its newest fuel-cell stack, an array of individual fuel cells, to be capable of running for 2,000 hours and of starting in temperatures down to -20 degrees Celsius -- at a production cost 30% lower than its predecessor.
That progress won't pay the bills -- for that, Ballard just won about $45 million in funding from DaimlerChrysler and Ford Motor. But it does make Campbell's talk of commercialization by 2010 sound reasonable. "Talk to any of the automakers," he says. "They'll tell you that fuel-cell technology is what engines will be built on in the future." -- Ryan Underwood
Pasadena, California
www.energyinnovations.com
As he pondered California's energy crisis five years ago, a lightbulb went off in Idealab founder Bill Gross's head. Wasn't there a way to cut the cost of solar energy? Besides being expensive to manufacture, traditional solar panels were at best 25% efficient. That is, they converted just a quarter of the sun's energy into power.
Energy Innovations, which Gross founded in 2001, solves that problem with mirrors. Rather than relying on one large, flat panel, its "Sunflower" design employs a 5-foot-square block of 25 mirrors to focus solar rays onto a collector positioned above -- a contraption that looks something like an overhead projector on steroids.
It's the result of three years of experimentation and innovation, but the most significant discoveries occurred only in the last year. That's when Energy Innovations asked 27 potential customers -- southern California businesses with big, flat roofs -- to design a new solar receptor.
Some of the customers' observations were surprising: Rather than wanting energy around noon when the sun was at its brightest, they wanted to defer production to late afternoon, which would yield more savings on their electric bills. It also turned out that the new devices didn't have to be pretty. "We thought we had to compete with flat-panel photovoltaic cells," says Gross. "But they said, if you get something below a five-year payback, we'll accept something that sticks up."
The lesson: Sometimes customers actually know what's best. Another lesson: It's okay not to get it right the first time. Check out Energy Innovations' Web site for a showcase of design iterations that didn't quite pan out. The company is "willing to try a lot of things to find all the dead ends and learn from them," Gross says. "We have an environment that is very forgiving of failure as long as you don't make the same mistake twice." -- MP
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