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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 (3563)	12/30/1998 9:52:00 AM
From: wpckr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5827

Right Sid. I guess I used the term "hybrid" a bit loosely. When I think about the whole picture I see the combination of natural gas powered cars(many running now in fleets) and hybrid cars on the highway at the same time, starting in 2002-2004. The surge in ngas usage will be considerable. Currently large parts of the country are on "interruptable service for ngas simply because the transmission infrastructure can't keep up with demand in the really cold snaps we get in this part of the world. So storage capacity(maybe LNG) will have to be built, lines will have to be "looped" and new ones laid. Increasing line pressure can only be taken so far do to pressure-temperature ratings limitations. Now add in increased residential and commercial use of ngas(including using it to supply fuel cells for these uses)to heat, and to provide hydrogen for the fuel cells and you begin to see what I mean about supply problems. For pollution abatement (and that means REDUCTION) as well as to beat the genie out of the bottle on the dying oil reserves, the switch to ngas and thence to pure hydrogen as a fuel instead of ngas becomes IMHO a given must do. Necessity being the mother of all invention, and profit being the great engine of progress, I think all of this will happen much quicker than most of us can imagine. Particularly when you consider what the computer has meant to design and development. An American cup from design concept to under sail in 6 months--incredible! Koch built 4 of 'em at once that way--and won the cup.