If ever fuel-cell cars are going to hit the mass market, it’s going to happen first in China and expand globally from there. From my point of view, that’s a simple fact of life. An article in the Boston Globe talks about a recent deal between Shanghai Fuel Cell Powertrain Co. and Vancouver-based Ballard Power Systems to supply fuel-cell stacks for a 100-car demonstration fleet owned by the Shanghai Municipal Government.

“The Shanghai government hopes to have its 100 fuel-cell cars operating by the end of 2007. Those models mark the first phase of the plan to put 1,000 hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles on Shanghai’s roads by 2010, with 10,000 operating by 2012,” according to the article. “That kind of aggressiveness in the development and deployment of hydrogen fuel-cell cars and trucks could make China a world leader in hydrogen fuel-cell technology, Ballard officials said.”

Of course, this should not come as a surprise to anyone.

If ever fuel-cell cars are going to hit the mass market, it’s going to happen first in China and expand globally from there. From my point of view, that’s a simple fact of life. An article in the Boston Globe talks about a recent deal between Shanghai Fuel Cell Powertrain Co. and Vancouver-based Ballard Power Systems to supply fuel-cell stacks for a 100-car demonstration fleet owned by the Shanghai Municipal Government.

“The Shanghai government hopes to have its 100 fuel-cell cars operating by the end of 2007. Those models mark the first phase of the plan to put 1,000 hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles on Shanghai’s roads by 2010, with 10,000 operating by 2012,” according to the article. “That kind of aggressiveness in the development and deployment of hydrogen fuel-cell cars and trucks could make China a world leader in hydrogen fuel-cell technology, Ballard officials said.”

Of course, this should not come as a surprise to anyone.

If you’re interested in keeping up to date with efforts in the U.S. to design the first “clean coal” plant (carbon capture/sequestration included), here’s an Associated Press article, via the Charleston Daily Mail, that fits the bill. A list of seven states going after the high-profile FutureGen project will be reduced to a shortlist of finalists later this week. Final selection of the winning state is expected to happen next year, with the plant itself to be completed by 2011.

The Canadian Clean Power Coalition has its own goal of building a demonstration clean coal plant in Canada by 2012. For more information on the technology and various options for using it in Canada, check out this fairly thorough clean coal technology roadmap recently made available through Natural Resources Canada.

If you’re interested in keeping up to date with efforts in the U.S. to design the first “clean coal” plant (carbon capture/sequestration included), here’s an Associated Press article, via the Charleston Daily Mail, that fits the bill. A list of seven states going after the high-profile FutureGen project will be reduced to a shortlist of finalists later this week. Final selection of the winning state is expected to happen next year, with the plant itself to be completed by 2011.

The Canadian Clean Power Coalition has its own goal of building a demonstration clean coal plant in Canada by 2012. For more information on the technology and various options for using it in Canada, check out this fairly thorough clean coal technology roadmap recently made available through Natural Resources Canada.