www.businessedge.ca/article.cfm/newsID/9258.cfm -
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Published on: 4/28/2005
Last Visited: 2/23/2009
The country faces a constant threat that leading Canadian companies working on hydrogen-related technologies - fuel cells in particular - could be enticed by other countries that place a higher value on developing alternative energies, says Christopher Curtis, interim president of the non-profit national association dedicated to developing the nation's fuel-cell and hydrogen industry.
"There's always a danger of losing that status; it's an issue related to government policy as well as a technology and development issue," Curtis said, following a presentation in Calgary last week.
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Not having access to big defence contracts makes it harder for Canadian companies to compete, "but we've done extremely well for what we get from our government," Curtis noted.
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"You see how much money the private sector is putting into research and development in this technology, so it's a huge amount of value added for the Canadian economy," Curtis said.
"There are a lot of jobs at stake, and it's also about future exports to the world.
"And our goal, of course, is to retain the leadership that we have, especially in British Columbia, which has the largest cluster of fuel-cell and hydrogen activities anywhere in the world."
B.C. - home to Ballard Power Systems Inc., the country's largest and best-known company in the sector - leads the country's hydrogen industry.
There are about 45 companies involved in the industry in the Lower Mainland, representing 65 per cent of both employment and total expenditures in Canada, Curtis said.
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"The leadership shown by Dynetek Industries Ltd. has been the prime source of storage containers and storage systems (for hydrogen) around the world," said Curtis.
Other major Calgary players include Advanced Measurements, a worldwide supplier of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) test systems, and Versa Power Systems - formerly FuelCell Energy, Ltd. - which produces small-scale, five-kilowatt solid oxide cells.
Curtis added that the University of Calgary has become an important player for research and development on SOFC systems.
Nevertheless, Curtis recognized that to be viable in the long term, the industry must prove its mettle in the commercial arena.
By 2006, industrial applications for power generation will be commercially viable; by 2007, fuel cells will be powering consumer products such as laptop computers and cellphones, offering more power to keep up with new features being added to these items; and within 10 years, the first commercial hydrogen-powered cars will be rolling off the assembly lines.
These types of initiatives should hold the interest of fickle financial markets, Curtis said.
"Finance is a big problem for all emerging technologies in Canada," he added.
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