Nuvera Fuel Cells

By Gus Block, Director of Marketing
Nuvera Fuel Cells

The Annual Meeting of the Industrial Truck Association (ITA) was held in Scottsdale, Arizona from October 2 through 5. ITA is a trade association representing lift truck manufacturers and their suppliers in North America. In 2004, Nuvera was the first fuel cell company to join ITA, which shortly thereafter established the Fuel Cell Working Group to address technical, legal, and regulatory issues associated with the use of fuel cells on lift trucks. One of the first actions of the Working Group was to compile a white paper, entitled, “Fuel Cell Technology for Industrial Truck Applications.”

Since that time, fuel cells have captured an increasing share of the ITA’s attention and agenda. The activities of the original Fuel Cell Working Group have continued under a newly established Energy Storage Systems Subcommittee, which is drafting a Recommended Practice (RP) covering the use of lead acid battery ‘emulators’ such as fuel cells on electric lift trucks. The new RP will pave the way for the adoption of fuel cell technology by providing specific guidelines for truck manufacturers. Over the next 2 years, the RP will likely become the basis of amendments to the major codes and standards affecting lift truck operation and safety published by Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL), the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA), and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

John Christensen, formerly of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, addressed the ITA regarding the DOE Hydrogen Program’s Early Market Transformation Activities. He noted that DOE sees material handling and backup power as the two primary applications where fuel cells offer a viable value proposition for customers TODAY. Ultimately, DOE’s interest is to spur the adoption of fuel cells in these ‘early markets’ in order to stimulate production volumes, and ultimately reduce the cost to the point where fuel cells are viable for widespread use in automobiles.

By Gus Block, Marketing Director
Nuvera Fuel Cells

 While Bill Mitchell was living it up at the National Hydrogen Association (NHA) Annual Conference near California’s wine country on Sunday, describing how the hydrogen future is here and now, Jim Rubright of East Penn Manufacturing, Danielle Andre and I were performing yeoman’s (and woman’s) duty at the Edison Electric Institute National Accounts Workshop at Disney World in Orlando. A tough job, but as the saying goes, somebody’s got to do it.

Unlike the NHA meeting, where talk of early markets for hydrogen and fuel cells is a bit like feeding red meat to the lions, few attendees at the Edison Electric event have any idea that fuel cell technology is here today and that it can help their organizations save money, reduce their carbon footprint, and help their distribution and manufacturing operations become more productive. But all of these are opportunities that relate directly to the topics and challenges being discussed and brainstormed here.

Many of the people that come to this well-attended annual workshop program are energy managers for major retailers, such as Nordstrom’s, Wal-Mart, and SuperValu. These are the individuals who are responsible for monitoring energy consumption within their corporations and for finding ways of conserving energy and switching to cleaner sources of power. One of the things I learned from the first full day of the workshop was what jacks-of-all-trade they need to be. They face a huge array of energy-related issues that requires familiarity with complex energy supply and demand issues and trends, regulatory codes and standards, and thousands of technologies and programs that are designed to improve energy efficiency.

On the supply side, a major theme of this conference is that utilities need to learn how to design energy efficiency programs that are customer-friendly. During a session I attended entitled, “What National Accounts Customers Really Want from Utility Incentive Programs,” a major complaint that surfaced from customers was how difficult it is for energy managers at the corporate level to sort out the requirements of local utility programs. Easing paperwork requirements and standardizing on qualifications and rules was a common theme that surfaced.

While a great deal of energy is consumed in the material handling operations of any Big Box retailer, their energy buyers are generalists who may have little direct experience with the forklifts and warehouses within their own companies. Perhaps that is why we got more than a few quizzical looks from passersby in the exhibit hall, where East Penn and Nuvera were showing off our fuel cell-powered lift trucks and hydrogen refueling dispenser – equipment that may be unlike any attendees here have seen before. It was up to Danielle, Jim and I to make the connection between fuel cells and the issues of concern to them. For those energy professionals who were sufficiently intrigued to stop and chat with us, their interest was piqued – for some, you could almost see the wheels beginning to turn inside their heads. We’re hoping to hear from more than a few of them once we all return home from the Magic Kingdom.

Coming up next week, several of Nuvera’s staff will be blogging daily from the National Hydrogen Association Annual Conference and the Edison Electric Institute Spring Meeting. Check back often to see the scoop!

NHA 2008 has the unique opportunity to spark dialogue between different players in the hydrogen marketplace, from the DOE to early commercial fuel cell producers to environmentalist groups and big name energy and auto companies.

EEI brings together the electric industry and their biggest customers, along with anyone that has an interest in either.

The bloggers:

Bill Mitchell is our VP of Sales and Marketing and will be blogging from the NHA conference. Look for updates from Bill on state and regional hydrogen initiatives.

James Cross is our VP of Technology and Product Development. He is moderating a session on Wednesday at NHA titled Fuel Cells: Improvements and Analysis.

Gus Block is a Marketing Director, and spends most of his time working with our partner, East Penn Manufacturing, on fuel cell material handling solutions for North America. Look for his posts coming from the EEI Spring meeting.

Danielle Andre - I’ll be checking in periodically from the EEI Spring meeting in sunny Florida!

For our other events, check out our events listing.