The e-Journal on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells
The surprising takeover of the Canadian competitor Hydrogenics will also have a positive impact on Ballard Power’s stock market valuation: Both companies have been frontrunners in FC development for many years. Their activities overlap in rail vehicles and trucks. They are both absolutely tops: Hydrogenics with Alstom and Ballard with CRRC and Siemens. Ballard also has many other activities in the major markets of the future, such as the use of fuel cells in drones.
The topic of hydrogen and fuel cells is also becoming increasingly hotly debated on the stock exchange. The takeover of Hydrogenics, the Canadian frontrunner in fuel cell systems for trucks and rail vehicles as well as for electrolysers, by the US company Cummins Engine, should make people sit up and even trigger a wave of further takeovers or participations of listed companies in the industry.
The reports are coming thick and fast: Chinese companies and some provinces are planning to initially invest US$17 billion in hydrogen technology. A master plan already provides for 1 million FC vehicles on the country’s roads in 2030.
Plug Power has now acquired the Canadian company EnergyOr, which claims to have a leading technology in hydrogen powered drones and robotic systems.
If you hold this H2-international issue in your hands, we will know how FuelCell Energy will continue – whether it will continue: Chapter 11 (US insolvency) or reorganisation. What has happened? Enormous amounts of shares were traded daily by FuelCell Energy – on some days up to 150 million (computer arbitrage programs?). These were felt more than there actually are (reason: Conversion of preference shares). The interim price gain resembled an explosion, as there were even short-term prices of 1.00 US-$, while the price days before was still 0.13 US-$ (all, of course, under the aspect of the 12:1 reverse split).
170 US dollars, a good 30 US dollars lower than I had expected (200 US dollars), marked the lowest price of Tesla’s share in the recent past, before the strong rebound to over 260 US dollars – until the disappointing figures for the second quarter of 2019 started the reverse.
In 1969, exactly 50 years ago, some young visionaries enthusiastic about technology organised the first Electric Vehicle Symposium. Accordingly, the EVS32 was dignifiedly celebrated from 9 to 12 May 2019 in Lyon in the presence of the now elderly but still dynamic founding members.
Fuel cell systems are also of great interest for use in drones due to their higher range compared to pure battery systems. For several years, research and development has been carried out in this field of aeronautical engineering, whereby the focus is not always on playful activities.
Fuel cell propulsion systems are not only being developed for unmanned aircraft, hydrogen is also increasingly becoming a topic in passenger transport. The US space agency NASA, for example, together with the engineering school of the University of Illinois, is constructing electric aircraft using liquid hydrogen and fuel cells.
Against the background of climate change, the reduction of greenhouse gases in the transport sector is increasingly coming to the fore. At present, electrically operated and in particular battery-powered vehicles (BEV) are of great importance.