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The sun was out at the south end of the campus of the University of British Columbia for the opening of the energy-efficient building that is now the National Research Council of Canada’s new “Institute for Fuel Cells Innovation”. The roof of the building includes photovoltaic panels which provide sufficient power to generate 10 kilograms a day of hydrogen from a Hydrogenics electrolyzer. Four hundred guests spilled out from under an awning to which four of Ford’s 30 FCV-Hybrid cars were pointing.
I stood next to David McLeod of Tekion and Paul Howard, chairman of Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Canada, who would conclude the speeches.
In the 1980s Howard and McLeod worked with Geoffrey Ballard, and more recently Howard helped Ballard start his new company, General Hydrogen, which has become one of the leaders with systems for fork trucks that use Ballard stacks. McLeod, the last of the founders to leave Ballard Power Systems, is now vice president, marketing and business development, at Tekion which specializes in micro fuel cells fed by formic acid. These two people were a microcosm of the representatives of old and new companies; federal, provincial and local government; universities and the finance community who followed eight speeches with interest.
We learned that the funding for the new building has come from an array of sources. For the government of British Columbia the Hon. Ministers Richard Neufeld and Kevin Falcon, representing Energy and Transportation respectively, said kind words about new technologies in their sector including, of course, hydrogen and fuel cells. Neufeld flashed back to a recent event in Victoria where a new local fuel cell company, Angstrom Power, had demonstrated a small fuel cell product.The Federal government was represented by Ardath Paxton-Mann, assistant deputy minister, Western Economic Diversification, a staunch supporter of high technology businesses, Sherif Barakat, vice president, NRC, Engineering, and Vesna Scepanovic, Natural Resources Canada’s manager for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells. Maja Velkovic, NRC’s director general in charge of the new facility, spoke not only of the building and the technologies it would nurture but of the skills of the people and the relationships that would be built with all the universities in BC. Don Avison, president of the University President’s Council, confirmed this.
When Howard spoke, just before the ribbon cutting, he reminisced about key events in the formation of Ballard Power Systems and of the patience one must have to get a company and technology to the point where it is commercially viable. He spoke with enthusiasm of the thrill of seeing the first PEM fuel cell work when he realized it had 20 times more power density than predecessors.
Howard told us a deal to finance Ballard was signed in 1987 with Mike Brown, then at Ventures West, on the last working day before the remarkable crash that year. Had it not been signed that day, Howard said, the Ballard fuel cell would have not moved forward. (Geoffrey Ballard calls it his lucky day!) Howard reiterated that success requires a long-term commitment.
After the ribbon cutting all entered the building designed by Coady & Bunting who are involved in a portfolio of innovative green buildings. Their work on the NRC facility is awaiting LEED® Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council, in recognition of its innovative sustainability features.
After refreshments, tour groups went around the building and could see the hydrogen ready labs, a solid oxide fuel cell that will drive the ground source heat pump, as well as the underside of the photovoltaic system.
Later I had a tour with Christopher Curtis, vice president of Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Canada who had been the master of ceremonies at the opening. Curtis has held his current position since the founding of Fuel Cells Canada in October 2000 and before then was with Industry Canada in the automotive sector. He has extensive knowledge of the international trade and business environment, the public policy process and industry analysis. As we walked, we saw that in addition to hydrogen there was work on low temperature SOFC, high temperature PEM, and methanol systems. We met with David Gosh, the NRC Director of Science and Technology, who talked of creative new solutions to tackle hydrogen production and the fueling infrastructure.
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