conference report Hydrogen + Fuel Cells 2011 Hannover, Germany Day One: 4th April H2FC in full swing at Hannover Messe (Source: H2FC-FAIR)

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1 conference report Hydrogen + Fuel Cells 2011 Hannover, Germany 4-8 APRIL 2011 H2FC in full swing at Hannover Messe (Source: H2FC-FAIR) Day One: 4th April Our first day at the annual Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Group Exhibit at the Hannover fair has been just as stimulating as one would expect from an event with over 120 companies exhibiting the latest fuel cell and hydrogen-related products, along with the many presentations at the public and technical forums. Our selected highlights: Starting in the transport sector, we got an update on Intelligent Energy's London black taxi programme, which has already begun with two demonstration models operating in the field. The target for this project is to roll out a fleet of taxis in time for the 2012 London Olympics. Intelligent Energy is also pushing its Burgman scooter, and sees great potential to compete with e-bikes in the European market. Truma is here demonstrating its LPG fuelled high temperature PEM system, with reforming technology developed in conjunction with IMM (Institute fur Mikrotechnik Mainz GmbH), which is on show at the exhibit powering the hotel load in a camper van. Truma is already an established supplier of heating and air conditioning units to the recreational vehicle and leisure industry, and is targeting this existing customer base in its initial commercialisation plans. Also looking at the leisure industry is Baltic Fuel Cells, which has developed what it calls a fuel cell 'subsystem', sitting halfway between a basic stack and a fully integrated fuel cell system. The

2 SuSy 300 incorporates a basic control system with the stack and appropriate connectors, making it easier to plug and play. ITM Power has used this event to launch its range of commercially available hydrogen refuelling units, which can be ordered at its booth. Both the HBox electrolyser producing hydrogen at 3 litres per minute and the HFlame gas generator for flame cutting applications are available to view, along with a scale model of its HOST (Hydrogen On-Site Trials) large-scale refuelling equipment, recently launched at Stansted airport. Fronius, a specialist in photovoltaic (PV) technology, is championing the integration of PV with hydrogen generation and storage and fuel cells to provide continuous clean power for households. It also told us about its materials handling fuel cell which it has in the demonstration phase working in a warehouse environment. Also in the stationary sector, we saw the 'inhouse5000' 5 kw fuel cell generator which has been developed as a German collaborative effort and may be Europe's answer to the very successful Japanese Ene-Farm collaboration for household heat and power. Five units with more than 10,000 hours accumulated in the field are currently in test and the developers are in talks with a number of interested energy suppliers. To complete the set, we also saw an interesting prototype portable system, based on microtubular SOFC. The ezelleron brand offers a range from as small as a 5 W unit for charging a mobile phone, able to use a disposable lighter as a fuel 'cartridge', up to a 36 W system which can charge multiple items such as a laptop and four other devices via USB ports. We ended the day at the inaugural Fuel Cell Markets Networking Hour which today discussed where hydrogen infrastructure should be located and what can be done to encourage deployment. At the end of each day these one hour panel discussions will address a key topic for the fuel cell and hydrogen industry, with presentations and informed debate. The sessions in the next few days will discuss low versus high temperature PEM, whether fuel cell vehicles have to wait for hydrogen infrastructure, and a debate concentrating on the relative advantages of available SOFC technology. Day Two: 5th April Fuel cells already provide energy solutions to a number of early markets, but all of these applications had to undergo extensive field trials and demonstrations before reaching commercialisation. Today on our walk around the fair, we saw the new generation of demonstration products likely to hit the market in the next few years; this forms the topic of today's report. FutureE has multiple examples of its Jupiter PEM system in the demonstration phase, both under its own brand and in collaboration with a system integrator. These units are targeted at the stationary market, providing fully grid independent m-chp and UPS solutions. Currently its focus is on the local market in Germany and surrounding countries, but it has admirable plans to roll out its systems globally in the future.

3 MES is working with Italian company Acta on a wide range of projects surrounding hydrogen production and fuel cells. Mainly focussing on the transport sector, range extenders for marine applications and fuel cell powered bikes have been key demonstration projects to date. We mentioned in our day one report the inhouse5000 5kW European stationary project, and today we got an update on the Callux programme also in the stationary sector, testing its m-chp systems in Germany. Launched by the German Ministry for Transport, Construction and Urban Development, the project is testing two SOFC systems from Vaillant and Hexis along with a PEM system from Baxi Innotech. Rated at 1 kw electric and 2 kw thermal, these systems will run in the trials until Topsoe Fuel Cell is demonstrating its planar, anode supported SOFC stacks, capable of running on a variety of fuels in conjunction with reforming technology, for applications including APUs and distributed generation. Engaged in a demonstration programme with Scandinavian partners, it is positioning itself to commercialise in the next few years. Pearl Hydrogen has a project running with the US DoD, evaluating its technology for use in the materials handling sector. Pearl's other focus also relates to the niche transport industry, with e- bike, marine propulsion and UAV projects underway. On the fuel supply side, Hydrogen Solutions is introducing its low cost electrolysis technology, which it believes can compete with the large multi-national gas companies for small volume hydrogen production. An initial run of the product will be launched within the next year and, if successful, could find use in a wide range of niche markets where small amounts of hydrogen are required. These demonstration projects are vital to the future success of fuel cells. By proving the viability and performance of fuel cell systems, familiarity and confidence in the technology will grow and this will lead almost inevitably to growth in sales. Day Three: 6th April The third day of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Group Exhibit began with a focus on partnerships. Dr Mike Hugh and Alex Bird from the Asia CleanTech Gateway (ACT) gave a multilingual presentation in both English and Japanese highlighting the benefits of closer working relationships between Japanese companies and their western counterparts. With an already established fuel cell market in key areas, the knowledge and experiences gained in Japan should not have to be re-learnt elsewhere; instead through cooperation and interaction these lessons can help to promote fuel cell industry growth worldwide. Following this introduction, ACT took a small group of interested parties on a pre-arranged tour of the exhibit, stopping for discussions with various companies along the route and providing company profiles in Japanese. Fuel Cell Today's own tour of the exhibit continued after lunch:

4 Educating fuel cell users of the future has always been an integral part of the h-tec business plan and it continues to provide a wide variety of education kits and teaching aids through its website, including mini fuel cells you can build yourself. More recently, it has branched into the development of industrial electrolysers and sees this as a growth area in the near future. Bac2 is promoting the benefits of using moulded bipolar plates from an early stage of fuel cell development. Typically companies use one-off machined plates for early development and testing due to the small numbers required. This does not always provide real-world data however, and when product volumes are scaled-up, changing to mass produced plates can change performance. Bac2 told us its technology for moulding bipolar plates can be simply scaled-up for mass manufacture, and creating the mould for initial testing becomes cost competitive when making only a few hundred plates. So even if a company is testing only a handful of fuel cells, it can use a technology identical to mass manufactured components. Proton has its 5 kw PEM fuel cell unit on display, which it is planning to sell into a wide variety of markets. Its stack technology has also been incorporated into a 50 kw power unit which is suitable for use in ships and light duty trucks. It views the market for UPS systems for data centres as particularly promising; this was covered in its presentation to the Public Forum. For the third day in a row, we have heard about another European consortium working on a CHP system for residential use. Plansee, who supplies plates to Bloom, is part of the German government-funded project which is developing the SOFC stationary fuel cell, the branding of which has yet to be defined. The consortium hopes to produce the first prototypes within the next couple of years and, like the other projects, to commercialise around the middle of the decade. We will be watching developments in this area with interest. Day Four: 7th April On our final day at the 2011 Hannover Fair we managed to catch up with the last few companies, see a number of interesting presentations and in the public forum Dan introduced the new-look Fuel Cell Today and what plans we have for the group. Nedstack discussed its PEM stack technology with us and described how its modular stacks can be scaled for a variety of applications. Mainly supplying stacks to system integrators, Nedstack also has an in-house project which produces large scale power plants, targeted for the chemical industry. Where surplus hydrogen is produced as part of a chemical process, installing a fuel cell provides an ideal route to monetise a by-product which would otherwise not be used, thereby producing clean energy in a cost effective way. In a manner similar to a number of other fuel cell companies, Heliocentris has progressed from its early days producing educational fuel cells and is now selling larger fuel cell units. Based on stack technology from Ballard, the Nexa 1200 unit is on show at its stand, designed to fit in standard 19 inch racking. One of the most interesting and informative handouts was also available on its booth, a flick-book showing how fuel cells work!

5 My interview in the Public Forum was highly successful, allowing me to share my comments on the current state of the market, and introduce the changes taking place at Fuel Cell Today this year. I announced that we will be getting a new look website and I reiterated the fact that from this year all reports will be available free of charge as pdfs. I also introduced our new team including myself, Marge Ryan and Jonathan Wing. I discussed commercialisation as the single biggest achievement of the industry to date in my opinion, and the fact this proves fuel cells can compete with alternative technologies on their own merits. Commenting on the successes of the fair this week, I felt the sheer number of companies we have seen with fuel cells running in test programmes and demonstrations holds great promise for the next two to three years. However to me companies such as Plug Power and SFC Energy were conspicuous by their absence from the event. Already selling products commercially, on the one hand it is good to see these companies targeting their end-use markets, but it would be nice to hear how their commercial successes are progressing and to show the way to current demonstration projects. Unfortunately we are unable to attend the final day of the fair, but really enjoyed the event and learning about the numerous projects on the cusp of commercial launch in the next three years. Dan Carter & Marge Ryan info@fuelcelltoday.com