The viability of fuel cells and hydrogen as a major player in the U.S. energy portfolio has been debated for nearly 20 years. But wider adoption and implementation of fuel cells may be on the horizon, thanks to a cash infusion from Uncle Sam.
On Wednesday, Steven Chu, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, announced that $41.9 million of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will go toward developing fuel cell technologies. According to a DOE statement, the money will go to "support immediate deployment of nearly 1,000 fuel cell systems for emergency backup power and material handling applications (e.g., forklifts) that have emerged as key early markets in which fuel cells can compete with conventional power technologies. Additional systems will be used to accelerate the demonstration of stationary fuel cells for combined heat and power in the larger residential and commercial markets." Details on who benefits from the package, after the jump.
Among the specific projects expected to benefit from the investment, a number of factories will get to replace the batteries in their fleets of electric forklifts to fuel cells, including a FedEx facility in Harrison, Arkansas and the Anheuser-Busch plant in St. Louis. Also, consumer fuel cell maker MTI Micro will get $2.4 million to accelerate the development of direct methanol fuel cells for cell phones, PDAs, and laptops.
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