Amid Hybrid Hype, a Lonely Advocate of Fuel Cells

"When?" we said.

Nanji hedged. It was understandable. Ballard is the world's leading developer of fuel-cell technology. In automotive parlance, that means it's a supplier. In the car business, as in most businesses, suppliers do not dictate product-implementation schedules, especially for a technology as complicated as fuel cells, devices that electrochemically combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce heat and energy, emitting only water vapor as a byproduct.

The technology for fuel cells has existed since the 1830s; and fuel cells routinely have been used in spacecraft launched by NASA. Car companies, led by General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG, have invested billions of dollars into the possibility of using fuel cells to power cars and trucks. Both of those companies originally planned to bypass hybrid vehicles altogether and go directly to fuel cells. But that turned out to be a big public relations mistake.

The media have no patience for eventualities. Ditto the public it informs. Perception is reality; and if the perception is that hybrids are "in," the reality is that you are "out" as a corporation if you aren't making and selling hybrids. And so, although they say they have not abandoned their fuel-cell dreams, GM and DaimlerChrysler, along with Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG, have all joined the hybrid bandwagon.

But Nanji says that Ballard is pushing on and that by 2010, the company will have developed an affordable, marketable fuel-cell power system that can be used in cars, trucks and buses worldwide -- albeit initially in government-supported demonstration projects.

"We can do it," Nanji said. "We can make this technology viable. We can get it to the original equipment manufacturers [the car companies]; and after that, it will be up to them."

Until then, and perhaps afterward, there are myriad ancillary fuel-cell issues to be resolved, not the least of which is developing the supply and service infrastructure for delivering the hydrogen critical to the fuel-cell process.

But the likely breakthrough in winning public acceptance for fuel cells probably will come from Japan -- the country that has made hybrid technology such a hit, Nanji said. It has something to do with need.

Japan is substantially more dependent on outside sources of energy than is the United States. Fuel cells offer the possibility of greatly reducing that dependence. Already, the Japanese government, in cooperation with Ballard, is developing a program to use fuel cells to power homes and commercial buildings, Nanji said.

That made me wonder if he would have been better off spending his time at a housing convention.