Ballard Power Systems

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Ballard Power Systems
Type Public
NASDAQ: BLDP, TSX: BLD
Founded 1979
Headquarters Burnaby, BC
Key people Ian A. Bourne, (Chairman), John Sheridan (President and CEO)
Industry Alternative energy
Products Fuel cells
Revenue $49.823 million USD (2006)[1]
Net income ($181.137 million) (loss) USD (2006)[1]
Employees 600 (2005)[2]
Website www.ballard.com

Ballard Power Systems (TSX: BLD, NASDAQ: BLDP), located in Burnaby, British Columbia -- a suburb of Vancouver -- is a company that designs, develops, and manufactures zero emission proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells.

Ballard Power Systems was originally founded as Ballard Research by Dr. Geoffrey Ballard. The company went public in 1993 on the Toronto Exchange, and in 1995, listed on NASDAQ.[3]

Some of the work performed by Ballard has included commercialization of:

  • fuel cell engines for the transportation market
  • electric drives for both fuel cell and battery-powered electric vehicles.
  • power conversion products for fuel cell generators
  • microturbines and other distributed generation technologies
  • fuel cell systems for markets such as portable power products and larger stationary generation products.

Ballard Power Systems's main objective is to develop fuel-cell technology. Previously, Ballard had its focus within the automobile market, and fleet services, as well as co-generation systems and the manfactur of materials for the fuel-cell sector. However, in late 2007, Ballard pulled out of the Hydrogen vehicle sector of its business to focus on fuel cells for forklifts and stationary electrical generation. Research Capital analyst Jon Hykawy concluded that Ballard saw the industry going nowhere and said: "In my view, the hydrogen car was never alive. The problem was never could you build a fuel cell that would consume hydrogen, produce electricity, and fit in a car. The problem was always, can you make hydrogen fuel at a price point that makes any sense to anybody. And the answer to that to date has been no."[4]

Contents

[edit] Competitors

Although Ballard Power Systems is one of the larger companies developing fuel cell technology, its chief competitors include:

[edit] Divisions

 Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.
  • XCELLSIS Fuel Cell Engines

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b 2006 Annual Results. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
  2. ^ "Ballard Streamlines Activities to Further Reduce Operating Expenses", Ballard Power Systems, 2005-09-22. Retrieved on 2006-07-16. 
  3. ^ When was Ballard's IPO?. Retrieved on 2006-07-16.
  4. ^ Article on Ballard's exit from the hydrogen vehicle industry