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Technology Stocks : Ballard Power -world leader zero-emission PEM fuel cells -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sid Turtlman who wrote (2693)	6/4/1998 5:47:00 AM
From: Garth Richmond	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5827

Hey there Sid! I just posted and noticed you snuck one in right before me. Man, I though I was a night owl...it's 2:30 AM here in Vancouver, so it must be 5:30 out where you are. Or perhaps you are just an early riser? Good post, by the way. They are legitimate concerns, and while I am optimistic that they will be overcome, it is by no means a done deal yet. Garth.

To: Sid Turtlman who wrote (2693)	6/4/1998 10:45:00 AM
From: Jim	Respond to of 5827

Sid: Thank you for your detailed answer to my query. It is sometimes confusing, to a layman, the difference between The technical requirements for delivery of hydrogen to the fuel cell, and the fuel cell itself. Jim

To: Sid Turtlman who wrote (2693)	6/6/1998 7:47:00 PM
From: Thomas Stewart	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5827

You wrote: "Take a look at the numbers: Ballard's stationary power plant reports 31% efficiency, with a goal of someday reaching 40%. ERC's molten carbonate cells do near 50%, with a target of 58%. Westinghouse's solid oxide fuel cells ought to be in the same ballpark as ERC's. Why? Because both designs of fuel cell run so hot they don't need a reformer, and that heat means that, in addition, both can tack on gains from cogeneration." But consider whether running hot is advantageous when power is decentralized. Maybe we move from a centralized power grid to a decentralized one. No blackouts and many other advantages as well. (Yes, that is a quite a leap into the future, but we are dealing with the future here anyway. And if it helps, this is already happening to some extent. See forbes.com ) Even consider local contributions to the power grid. I read in an earlier post this tantalizing idea: we pull into our garages at night and tap into the natural gas already pumped into our houses (many houses anyway) and actually contribute to the power grid. Anyway, these are all fanciful notions. May question, as stated earlier, is whether running hot is advantageous under these local, in-home conditions. I really don't know what is involved in cogen--it may not matter as we all have "hot" furnaces in our basements. Please clarify.