Fuel Cell Nation

Volkswagen Consent Decree Fallout: EPA Treats EVs better than FCEVs!

In the news release from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Headquarters announcing a major step towards resolving last year's VW diesel engine emissions scandal, emphasis is placed on the fairness of the $14.7 Billion partial settlement between Volkswagen, the EPA and California Air Resources Board (CARB). Yes, up to $10.03 billion is set aside to compensate consumers under the program, $2.7 billion will fund projects across the country that will reduce emissions of NOx, and VW will "invest" $2 billion toward improving infrastructure, access and education to support and advance zero emission vehicles (ZEVs). Unfortunately, it appears that in the EPA's eyes, the class of ZEVs that include plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) will receive more assistance than fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). In my eyes, this unequal footing of EVs and FCEVs is not fair.

The text of the partial consent decree details how the $2 billion "investment" by VW will be "invested" over the prescribed 10-year period. Appendix C details the allowable financial assistance for EV charging stations and FCEV hydrogen refueling stations:

• 60-100% of the cost for EV charging stations, depending on the level of public access, but only
• 25-35% of the cost for FCEV hydrogen refueling stations, depending on the size of the station (expressed in kg/day.)

Obviously, it appears that the EPA (and CARB) have decided to not use a level playing field, but instead have chosen to provide over twice the financial incentive percentage to electric vehicles, relative to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

This is quite disappointing, especially due to the nascent state of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Anyone familiar with technoeconomic analysis knows that new technologies (e.g. FCEVs) are generally more expensive than more established technologies (e.g. EVs). This is due to the fact that costs always come down as technologies mature, coupled with the fact that the increasing adoption of new technologies leads to economies of replication (hello assembly lines!). On this basis alone, I would recommend that the EPA (and CARB) revise their plans, and allow financial incentives of 60-100% for FCEV refueling stations, matching the incentive rates for battery electric vehicles.

 To summarize, it is good that the first VW emissions scandal settlement includes financial incentives to speed the adoption of EVs and FCEVs. Unfortunately, it is bad that the VW settlement provides significantly larger rates of financial incentives for FCEV hydrogen refueling stations.

MIT Sloan Clean Energy Ventures Thoughts

Some of the most interesting numbers out of my recently-completed MIT Sloan Executive Education class Clean Energy Ventures: Creating Innovative New Businesses Through Entrepreneurial Management involve Massachusetts, as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT.)

Regarding Massachusetts, I learned that there are currently 5,000 clean energy companies here, which currently employ 1.5% of the state's work force! I had no idea that there was that much clean energy development going on locally!

Regarding MIT, over 26,000 startups have been spun out over the years. Annual sales from these companies total about $2 trillion, which would make it the 11th biggest economy in the world.

The May/June 2012 issue of Technology Review: Can Energy Startups Be Saved?  echoes many of the same issues faced by startup companies in the energy arena that were discussed in my Clean Energy Ventures class. The article states "...given that energy is a highly competitive commodity business dominated by entrenched corporations and infrastructure, commercializing new energy technologies requires much more than a large infusion of money. Scaling up innovations in energy production also requires exceptional acumen in business, engineering, and understanding markets."

This was a primary thrust of the class, that it is much harder to start a new energy company, compared to a software or Web-based startup. The skill set required in energy goes well beyond the business and technical arena, and includes public policy and environmental abilities. Furthermore, you must be patient in the energy arena, as you can't make a company and sell it in 18 months for a billion dollars, as the Instagram founders did with Facebook recently. Energy companies take years to develop (often at least a decade).

The best thing about learning all these skills is that since the energy arena seems to be the toughest to do business in, my new skills should translate well into any business area.

MIT Clean Energy Prize Audience Choice

As a part of the MIT Sloan Clean Energy Venture program I'm attending, I am just back from attending the final awards ceremony for the 2012 MIT Clean Energy Prize.

Here's Spindrift Energy, winners of the Audience Choice Award, hamming it up after the along ceremony, along with their check for $10,000. Spindrift Energy is an MIT startup helping to solve the world’s energy problems by way of their patent-pending wave energy device.

Earlier in the evening, Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, and currently at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, participated in a "fireside chat" that was streamed live on the Internet.

More later, as I have to get up early to get back to MIT Sloan early tomorrow for another day of the Clean Energy Ventures program.

Attending Next Week's MIT Sloan Clean Energy Ventures Program

I'm excited about taking the MIT/Sloan Clean Energy Ventures: Creating Innovative New Businesses Through Entrepreneurial Management program next week as part of their executive education offerings. So far there are 21 people taking part, including many international executives (Mexico, Denmark, Singapore, ...)

The instructors include Bill Aulet (Managing Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and also a Professor of the Practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management), Daniel Nocera (currently at Harvard University, and the ex-Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and ex-Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT]. Prof. Nocera was also Director of MIT’s Solar Revolutions Project and the ENI Solar Frontiers Center), Ernest Moniz (currently MIT's Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics Emeritus and Special Advisor to the MIT President, previously the thirteenth United States Secretary of Energy from 2013 to January 2017), and others.

In addition to the classroom learning, we will be evaluating clean energy business opportunities at the 2012 MIT Clean Energy Prize. Following the evaluations, there is a VIP reception with the teams and judges. Looking forward to meeting the scientists and management leaders setting the standards in the clean energy field.

I intend to Tweet as time permits during these sessions, so feel free to follow @KeithDPatch. Blog recaps to follow in the coming weeks.

DOE SBIR Webinar April 10

Sorry for the late notice, but the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is having another live webinar on Tuesday, April 10, 2012 from 2-2:30 p.m. Eastern time. The webinar is being held to highlight additional information on specific changes and elements of the DOE's FY 2012 SBIR/STTR Phase I (Release 3) Founding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). The funding opportunity was released Tuesday, April 3, 2012.

The agenda for the webinar includes:

• Release 3 Schedule of Activities and Important Due Dates

• Required Pre-Application Form, including the DOE's Evaluation and Feedback

• Revisions to the FOA Topics since their Release on March 5th

• SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Update on Eligibility and Impacts to the Policy Directive

• 15 Minute Question (via Chat Text Box) and Answer period

You can register for the webinar at this site.

DOE SBIR Webinar March 19

Sorry for the late notice, but the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is having a live webinar on Monday, March 19, 2012 from 2-4 p.m. Eastern time. The webinar is being held to provide detailed information on energy efficiency and renewable energy R&D topics for small businesses interested in an upcoming funding opportunity. The upcoming funding opportunity is DOE's FY 2012 SBIR/STTR Phase I (Release 3), which is expected to be released in early April.

The agenda for the webinar includes the eight topics areas and 30 available subtopics planned under the solicitation. In addition, it will address questions submitted in advance (during the registration process) by webinar registrants and others. It will conclude with a live question and answer session with the webinar participants. The two-hour webcast is free of charge, but advance registration is required to obtain an Internet URL for the presentation.

You can register for the webinar at this site.

Hydrogen and Professional Bicycling

During my recent TV viewing of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, I had a good look at the jerseys of the Garmin-Cervélo team. (Full Disclosure: I own a Cervélo R3 that I love!) I noticed that one of the sponsors was Tata! Tata, in the form of Tata International's Tata Consultancy Services. I believe that this is the first time a company with a fuel cell tie-in has sponsored a professional bike team! (Tata also sponsored the Cervélo Test Team in 2010 before it was combined with Garmin's team.)

Tata's involvement in fuel cells is two-fold:

In the November 22, 2007 Times of India article Tata-ISRO team up to launch hydrogen-powered vehicle, we learn that Tata teamed with the Indian Space Research Organisation on a pilot project to see whether hydrogen can be used to fuel automobiles. Unfortunately, this project apparently got canceled, because I can't find any subsequent announcements by either Tata or ISRO of a hydrogen-powered demonstration vehicle.

October 07, 2010, in Sun Catalytix Corporation completes $9.5-million Series B funding round, Tata announced that it lead the latest round of Sun's funding. Sun Catalytix is a startup spun out from the MIT research lab of Professor Daniel Nocera, commercializing novel electrolyzer technology. In January, 2010, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) selected Sun Catalytix as one of only 37 recipients from over 3600 applicants for ARPA-E's first-round of funding for transformational energy technologies.

Among their conglomerate's activities, Tata also manufactures bicycles and components.

I wonder when the first company specializing in renewable energy will sponsor a pro sports team?

Hydrogen in Massachusetts

Everybody knows about the major hydrogen/fuel cell goings on in California. And many people know of the millions of dollars that the state of Connecticut is putting into fuel cells. However, Massachusetts has some hydrogen/fuel cell organizations as well!

The Northeast Electrochemical Energy Storage Cluster is a network of commercial, academic and government members striving to accelerate the development and implementation of hydrogen production and fuel cell technologies.

The Massachusetts Hydrogen Coalition, Inc. is a non-profit that is expanding hydrogen, fuel cell and related industries in Massachusetts by increasing resource availability, expanding visibility, and creating marketing and partnering opportunities.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center is the first state agency in the nation dedicated solely to facilitating the development of the clean energy industry. Besides hydrogen and fuel cells, they support solar, wind, and other green energy technologies.

Now we just need surcharges on energy utility company bills (like California's and Connecticut's) that get used to promote renewable hydrogen and fuel cells!

European Hydrogen Storage

Prof. Duncan H Gregory is on a roll. Not only is he a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow (Scotland), and landed a job as Scientific Consultant with the startup Hydrogen Horizons, but he has recently teamed with European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).

EADS Innovation Works recently issued the press release Nanotechnology could pave the way for hydrogen fuels where they announce their receipt of funding from the Materials Knowledge Transfer Network - part of the UK Technology Strategy Board - and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). This funding will allow the team of EADS IW, Hydrogen Horizons, and University of Glasgow to pay a student to carry out a four year PhD project on replacing the "current" PCT patent-pending Hydrisafe metal hydride material with a more advanced material. The release also describes the current Hydrisafe storage material as being the commercially available lanthanum nickel hydride (LaNi₅H₆) - certainly not very experimental at all! So did Hydrogen Hoirzons recently apply to patent a commercially-available material?

A read of the Hydrogen Horizons PCT application A hydrogen containing tank shows a fairly weak patent application. Dr. Fredy Ornath, CEO of Hydrogen Horizons, is the only listed inventor, and he provides no data/description/claims on what really counts - the composition and performance of the hydrogen storage material! In other words, it is basically a heat transfer patent.

Wanting to find if they really have something in the pipeline, some Googling uncovered this presentation from 3 years ago:

Applied Hydrogen Inc. - Solid Hydrogen Packaging for Vehicles, Utilities and Merchant Delivery
From The Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute. 

Now it looks like some double-dipping is going on - many of the slides in this Applied Hydrogen Inc. presentation match those in the previous link to a Hydrogen Horizons presentation. Plus, many of the founders and technical people are the same in Hydrogen Horizons and Applied Hydrogen Inc. I hope that Prof. Gregory and EADS know what they are getting into...

Another Interim Hydrogen Step

The Green Car Congress has an article from Nikkei about Japan's METI cost-sharing 50% of programs that will upgrade refinery-grade hydrogen (90% purity) to 99.99% pure fuel cell-grade hydrogen:

With Japan moving toward wide adoption of fuel cell vehicles by fiscal 2015, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry seeks to secure a steady supply of high-purity hydrogen.

Of course, this will do nothing to reduce global warming, as all refinery hydrogen is produced from petroleum-based feedstocks. You'd think they'd try to promote electrolyzers, which use renewable (or conventional) electricity to efficiently produce pure hydrogen. But, I'm sure they will get some good press about their valiant efforts to support fuel cells.