tech report

Canada's New Fuel Cell Facility Will Walk the Talk

• by Nigel Fitzpatrick
• Acquire Innovations Corp.
  Vancouver, BC

A model of the new home of the National Research Council of Canada's Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation (NRC-IFCI) is introduced by Ron Britton, president of Fuel Cells Canada; The Hon. Stephen Owen, Minister of Public Works; Maja Velkovic, director general, NRCand The Hon. David Anderson, Minister of the Environment.

I’ve just come in from attending an eloquent seminar talk, “Pathways to a Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy System in BC – A Sustainability Assessment” by Kirthi Roberts (kroberts@sdri.ubc.ca), in the auditorium of the National Research Council of Canada’s (NRC) present facility on the campus of the University of British Columbia. In B.C. we are blessed with a 200-year supply of natural gas and coal bed methane, a 1,000-year supply of coal, and enormous biomass resources. We largely export these because we have 90% of our power coming from hydro-electricity, and we also have wind and ocean wave resources. Besides reminding us that the future is in the hands of the young, the talk triggered a lively debate at the end of the meeting on the absence of nuclear power here and the global merits of higher fuel taxes.

Two days ago, I was at the same place when Canada’s Ministers of the Environment and Public Works, David Anderson and Stephen Owen , unveiled a model of a new building that the NRC team will move into in 2006. This also will be the home of the UBC campus node on the Hydrogen Highway™, which was described in the May issue of ABT. It also will be a hub for efficient green technology research and demonstration and the home ground of NRC’s Institute of Fuel Cell Innovation. The building will be designed to the latest globally recognized efficiency standards and will incorporate a ground source heat pump and photovoltaic power generation as well as a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) to run the heat pump and provide climate control for the building.

In the background material at the unveiling we were told that the fuel cell supplier is Fuel Cell Technologies Ltd. in Kingston, Ontario (www.fct.ca). The next day FCT put out a release that tells us, “The unit is scheduled for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2004, and will operate initially on natural gas, followed by conversion to methanol. The potential exists for future programs including other alternative fuels such as propane and ethanol.”

The NRC seminar series and the debates it sparks are assured of a long life, and Canada’s ability to continue to be a leader in the clean energy debate is enhanced!