Carbon Trust launches £8m 'Challenge' to encourage fuel cells technical breakthrough
Sat 10 October 2009
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The Carbon Trust has launched an £8m "Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge" which aims to hasten the commercialisation of advanced fuel cell technology which can produce electricity and heat for transport as well as for domestic and business uses. The Carbon Trust says that a breakthrough in fuel cell technology could open up a global fuel cell market worth over $180 billion by 2050.
David Hart, head of fuel cell and hydrogen research at Imperial College said: "For many years fuel cell and hydrogen technologies have been expected to become a cornerstone of a low-carbon, more efficient energy system, but the cost, durability and performance of current fuel cell systems remain unattractive in most applications. The Carbon Trust competition is an exciting opportunity to address these issues with a fresh perspective and co-ordinated approach to make polymer fuel cells an everyday commercial reality."
For more details about the Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge, please follow the associated links.
Through the Low Carbon Innovation Group, the Carbon Trust and the Technology Strategy Board have been working together to coordinate support for fuel cell and hydrogen technology in the UK since 2007. The Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge and the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Demonstration Programme which was announced by the Technology Strategy Board earlier this month are complementary initiatives supporting, respectively, research on next generation technologies and demonstration of currently-available systems.
The Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Demonstration Programme is a £7.2m joint initiative between DECC and the Technology Strategy Board to cover transport and stationary market applications and to enable fully scaled up demonstration projects for technologies that have already successfully undertaken research, development and prototyping projects. For more details follow the associated LowCVP news link.
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