The race is on to bring fuel cells to commercialisation after the UK Carbon Trust launched the Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge that could see the mainstream cost-effective production of fuel cell powered cars and buses, as well as providing electricity and heat for both homes and businesses.
In an £8million scheme, there is a call for proposals that will result in the selection of up to three ideas with as much as £1million per project to develop and prove them. Then if one demonstrates the potential for lower cost fuel cell systems, the Carbon Trust will invest up to a further £5million to develop the technology commercially.
It is hoped that the scheme will deliver a reduction in fuel cell system costs that can make mass market deployment a reality. According to research by the New Carbon Trust, if cuts can be achieved, the global market could be worth more than $26billion by 2010 and more than $180billion by 2050. The UK share of the market could top $1billion by 2020 and $19billion by 2050.
According to Dr Robert Trezona, the head of research and development at the Carbon Trust, fuel cells have been 10 years away from a real breakthrough "for the past 20 years". He believes this is a critical moment for UK fuel cell technology and it is a golden opportunity to launch world beating products on to a massive global market.
Currently, fuel cell system costs are too high by a factor of at least 10 for widespread uses with projections of the costs being brought down by volume production still suggesting that they would remain 30-40 per cent too high for most markets.
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