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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DavesM who wrote (253152)	5/6/2002 10:39:53 PM
From: Krowbar	Respond to of 769670

While "stuck in 1955" Dick Cheney dreams about a new coal plant a week, the forward thinking California Power Authority is thinking clean, efficient fuel cell power.... Government and industry have joined forces in California to thrust stationary fuel cells into the public eye and on to the grid ...David Freeman, California Power Authority's chairman and a former energy adviser to President Jimmy Carter, is out to make California a national showcase of stationary fuel-cell technology. To do this, CPA is putting up the money not only to buy the latest equipment but also to build modern factories for mass-producing the next generation of equipment. But if fuel cells are to compete with other forms of power generation, Mr Freeman insists that manufacturers must trim costs and boost reliability. In short, their price-performance ratio has to get a lot closer to that of a conventional turbine plant. A group of 18 state and federal agencies is now pooling resources, money and brainpower to hasten the commercialisation of stationary fuel cells. Their support led to the publication in January of CPA's first “bidder's list”, a register of 15 fuel-cell firms—including Plug Power, Siemens Westinghouse, and FuelCell Energy—that will be asked to draw up formal proposals to install stationary fuel cells throughout California. CPA will then award its first round of contracts later this spring. With continued funding over the next three years, Alan Lloyd, chairman of the California Air Resources Board (and a co-chairman of the collaborative with Dr Samuelsen), expects fuel cells to be generating at least 500 megawatts of power across the state. That may be only a tiny fraction of California's 50,000-megawatt appetite. But it is a “giant first step” for the fuel-cell industry, says Dr Lloyd, and one that could persuade other states to join in... economist.com Del