Bulletin: Clinton Climate Initiative Includes Fuel Cells, but Ballard Role Now Uncertain

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Clinton Initiative Starts Pacts with Ballard, UTC Power But Ballard May Quit Car FCs

NEW YORK/VANCOUVER, November 5 – Just when it looked that fuel cells and hydrogen energy would get a big boost from a new partnership with Bill Clinton’s Climate Initiative, one of the major partners, Ballard Power Systems, indicated it was considering bailing out of developing automotive fuel cells.

In fact, Bloomberg.com quoted a German business publication, WirtschaftsWoche, as saying that Ballard has already agreed to sell its automotive unit to Daimler AG which already has a 19% stake in Ballard.

Last week, the former president announced partnerships with the Conference of Mayors and super-chain Wal-Mart to drive down the cost of energy-efficient, clean technologies. In transportation, product suppliers would include fuel cell developers Ballard Power Systems and UTC Power, Canadian hydrogen tank maker Dynetek, automotive integrator ISE, German electronics manufacturer Siemens, truckmaker Scania, carmaker Volvo, advanced battery developer A123 Systems, and EDrive, a Monrovia, CA-based company that develops plug-in systems for Toyota’s hybrid Prius.

Over the weekend, Ballard confirmed that it was reviewing strategic alternatives to its automotive fuel cell development and that it was in talks with both Daimler and Ford Motor Co.

The German magazine reportedly will also say in an article due to be published this week that an agreement may be announced as early as this month.

Interestingly, the Canadian stock market reacted to the confusing picture with glee: on the Toronto stock exchange Ballard’s shares rose more than 18 % in early trading Monday morning.

(A more detailed version of this report will appear in the upcoming December issue of “The Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter”)

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