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Ballard's Value Added Solutions

Interview with Larry Stapleton, Vice President - Sales

Q:  Who’s buying fuel cells? What’s driving purchase decisions?
A:  We’re seeing a clear trend in the continued growth of commercial deployments, with material handling equipment and backup power for telecom leading the way. These industries are purchasing fuel cell products on the strength of the value proposition – both environmental and economic. There are over 1,200 fuel cell powered lift trucks operating with Ballard stacks in distribution centres throughout the US, with companies such as Walmart, Coca Cola and FedEx. Wireless network operators have installed fuel cell backup power systems powered by Ballard fuel cells at over 600 sites.

Q:  What type of ROI can a warehouse operator expect?
A: Companies using fuel cell forklifts are reporting significant benefits and generally seeing payback on their investment in less than a year.

BMW, for example, has deployed a fleet of more than 85 Plug Power GenDrive® forklift trucks with Ballard fuel cells in its automotive manufacturing plant in upstate South Carolina. The project avoids 1.8 million kilowatt-hours per year of electricity consumption otherwise needed to charge batteries, offsetting about 1,200 tons per year of CO2 emissions.

Walmart has a fleet of 70 fuel cell forklifts operating at its new refrigerated distribution centre near Calgary, Alberta. The lift trucks are improving warehouse productivity and reducing operating costs by $150,000 per year.

Q: And what benefits can a wireless network operator expect?
A: Backup power solutions based on fuel cell technology deliver a number of advantages over conventional batteries and diesel generators - higher reliability across a wide range of operating conditions; lower maintenance costs; longer operating life; reduced size, weight and installation footprint.

For the island of Sumatera, Indonesia, where it’s not uncommon to experience up to 40 hours a month of power loss, Hutchison Telecom chose to install 150 ElectraGen™ systems from IdaTech, powered by Ballard’s fuel cells. The direct-hydrogen systems provide up to 2.5kW of power, produce zero emissions and require minimal maintenance, resulting in low operating cost.

Q:  How is Ballard addressing the challenge of product cost?
A. Market penetration is increasing and costs are coming down. Design enhancements, growth in production volumes and implementation of automated manufacturing processes, have all contributed to a 45% average reduction in the cost of Ballard’s fuel cell products over the past three years. And we’ll see product costs fall 20 to 25% in 2011.

Q:  What does Ballard bring to the table that other fuel cell manufacturers don’t?
A: At the heart of each Ballard fuel cell product lies a stack of unit cells based on our proprietary esencia™ technology, for unsurpassed performance, durability and versatility. esencia™ draws on intellectual property from over 2,000 patents and patent applications together with unmatched years of "know-how" to enable the optimization of fuel cell designs across a wide range of applications.

In addition, Ballard plays a unique role in the fuel cell industry, delivering fuel cell stacks, modules as well as complete systems, depending on the market. By participating along the entire value chain, we’re able to leverage our expertise in fuel cell stack operation, complete system integration, and fuel processing.

We leverage this knowledge of fuel cells and downstream system integration activities to provide an unmatched set of technical engineering skills not available elsewhere in the marketplace to support our customers in creating industry-leading clean energy power solutions.