Peterbilt truck with "hotel" powered by Delphi APU fuel cell
DOE Secretary Steven Chu announced today that it would target $41.9 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for fuel cell development.
The money will be doled out to 12 companies for 14 projects in 10 states (see below). Some of the funding is to subsidize the purchase of fuel cell vehicles (by companies like FedEx and Anheuser-Busch), while other funds are earmarked for R&D projects. The companies are expected to kick in over $72 million as their share of the projects.
According to the DOE, the allocations will “improve the potential of fuel cells to provide power in stationary, portable and specialty vehicle applications, while cutting carbon emissions and broadening our nation’s clean energy technology portfolio.”
The agency says about 1,000 fuel cell systems will be installed for emergency backup power and material handling applications. DOE says PEM, SOFC and direct-methanol fuel cells will be funded.
DOE Fuel Cell Funding:
| State | Recipient | Amount |
Purpose |
| Arkansas | FedEx | $1.3 M | Lift trucks |
| California | Jadoo Power | $1.8 M | 1-kW generators |
| PolyFuel | $2.5 M | Fuel cell miniaturization | |
| Colorado | Anheuser-Busch | $1.1 M | Lift trucks |
| Massachusetts | East Penn Manu. | $1.1 M | Lift trucks, fuel storage |
| Michigan | Delphi | $2.4 M | Commercial trucks |
| New York | MTI Fuel Cells | $2.4 M | 1-W consumer electronics power packs |
| Plug Power | $3.4 M | Combined heat & power | |
| Plug Power | $2.7 M | Backup power | |
| Pennsylvania | GENCO | $6.1 M | Lift trucks |
| Texas | Sysco | $1.2 M | Pallet trucks |
| Virginia | Sprint | $7.3 M | Communication system backup power |
| Washington | ReliOn | $8.6 M | Communication system backup power and data reports |