fuel cells
Oil and gas pipeline giant Enbridge Inc. has invested $5 million in Mississauga, Ont.-based Hydrogenics, a leading maker of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells and electrolysis systems for producing hydrogen gas from water.
According to a new report by Ernst & Young, U.S. venture capital (VC) investments in cleantech rose by 73 percent, to $1.1 billion, in the third quarter of 2011, in spite of a global slowdown in investment in most other business venues -- with the notable exception of Internet ventures and health care.
America’s largest independent bottler of Coca-Cola, Coca Cola Bottling Consolidated (CCBC), has introduced hydrogen fuel cells to their forklift operations.
A closer look today at Plug Power, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG), whose 66.7 percent gain last week led the EnergyBoom Clean 100 Index (E•B Clean 100).
Plug Power, based in Latham, New York, announced in April 2010 it was restructuring to cut costs, focus on its GenDrive fuel cell power units for fork lifts and halt development and manufacturing of its stationary backup and off-the-grid fuel cell power generators.
Two fuel cell companies were among the six top performers in the EnergyBoom Clean 100 Index (E•B Clean 100) over the five trading days leading up to the Christmas break.
Shares of FuelCell Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: FCEL) were up 28.7 percent (down 44.5 percent year to date) and shares of Ballard Power Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BLDP) were up 14.5 percent (down 16 percent YTD).
It is pretty clear that the economic viability of wind and solar energy and the extent to which they will contribute significant power to the grid depends on being able to generate electricity intermittently -- when the sun shines and the wind blows -- and store it for use when it needed and/or when the sun is not shining nor the wind blowing.
The two top performing companies in the EnergyBoom Clean 100 Index (E•B Clean 100) last week were Capstone Turbine Corporation (NASDAQ: CPST) (+21.2 percent) and FuelCell Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: FCEL) (+18.8 percent).
Capstone and FuelCell each provides distributed (off-the-grid) power generation systems they claim are cleaner and more efficient than the most commonly used off-the-grid systems powered by diesel engines.
The South Korean government has announced it will invest US$35.4 billion in the development of renewable energy resources by 2015.
EnergyBoom.com, the global online leader in news and views about the clean and efficient energy sector, is today launching the EnergyBoom Clean 100 Index (E•B Clean 100) and four subindices that measure the share price performance of the overall clean energy sector and four key subsectors.





