Ballard Power Systems Inc. is a developer and manufacturer of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell products for markets such as heavy-duty motive (consisting of bus and tram applications), portable power, material handling as well as engineering services. Ballard has designed and shipped over 400 MW of fuel cell products to date.
 | |
| Formerly | Ballard Research |
|---|---|
| Company type | Public |
| TSX: BLDP | |
| Industry | Alternative energy |
| Founded | 1979 |
| Headquarters | Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada |
Key people | Jim Roche, Chairman of the Board of directors Randy MacEwen, President and Chief Executive Officer |
| Products |
|
Number of employees | 800 (Oct 2024) |
| Website | ballard |
History
editBallard was founded in 1979 by geophysicist Geoffrey Ballard, Keith Prater, and Paul Howard, under the name Ballard Research Inc. to conduct research and development on high-energy lithium batteries. Since committing to the development of PEM fuel cell technology in 1989, Ballard has delivered PEM fuel cell products worldwide to a number of leading product manufacturers.[1]
Ballard went public in 1993 on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE), and in 1995 was listed on the NASDAQ. Ballard Power Systems opened a fuel cell manufacturing facility in 2000 in Burnaby, B.C.[2]
Automotive fuel cell cooperations
editOn February 1, 2008, Ballard spun out Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation (AFCC)[3] to allow for further expansion of fuel cell technology.[4][5] After the split, Ballard continued as a publicly traded company focusing on non-automotive applications (including buses), while AFCC became a privately held company of 150 employees, developing hydrogen fuel cell stacks for automobiles. AFCC's initial ownership split was Daimler AG (50.1%), Ford Motor Company (30.0%), and Ballard itself (19.9%).[6]
In 2018, Ballard signed a contract with Weichai Power for a strategic partnership. Weichai acquired for US$163 million19.9 percent of Ballard's shares.[7] As part of this collaboration, Ballard and Weichai intend to supply the Chinese market with fuel cell systems for trucks, busses, and forklifts.[8]
In cooperation with German car manufacturer Audi, Ballard is part of a development partnership for automotive fuel cells, which will run at least until 2022.[9] Ballard delivers fuel cells to bus manufacturers, e.g. Van Hool (Belgium), New Flyer (Canada) and Solaris (Poland).[10][11]
Other activity areas
editBesides road vehicles, Ballard delivers fuel cells also for trains,[12] mining trucks,[13] marine applications,[14][15][16][17] and backup power systems for critical infrastructures such as radio towers.[18][19] Furthermore, a fuel cell system for application in drones is under development.[20]
Achievements
editBallard has:
- supplied vehicles with fuel cells traveling more than 200 million kilometers in total to date 2024[21]
- access to 2,000 patents/applications[citation needed]
References
edit- ^ "Ballard Power Systems". Finpedia.co. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
- ^ "The Practice of Innovation: Seven Canadian Firms in Profile" (PDF). Government of Canada. 2003. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- ^ "AFCC Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation". Archived from the original on 2015-04-05. Retrieved 2018-04-14.
- ^ Automotive Tech: "The Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation (AFCC)" Archived 2009-01-08 at the Wayback Machine - technologynewsdaily.com - November 8, 2007 - Retrieved November 08, 2007
- ^ "Daimler AG to become majority stake holder in new ”Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation”" - Daimler AG - November 8, 2007 - Retrieved November 08, 2007
- ^ "Daimler, Ford Teaming Up On Fuel Cells". Jalopnik. 9 November 2007. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
- ^ "China: Weichai wird größter Anteilseigener von Ballard" (in German). electrive.net. 2018-08-29. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
- ^ "Ballard Receives $19.2M Order from Weichai-Ballard JV for MEAs to Power Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles in China". PRNewswire. 2019-12-16. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
- ^ "Audi and Ballard extend fuel cell cooperation". electrive.com. 2018-06-12. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
- ^ "Pau (France) welcomes the launch of the world's first hydrogen BRT". Sustainable Bus. 2019-12-18. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
- ^ "Solaris orders 25 Ballard fuel cell modules to power hydrogen buses in Germany". Sustainable Bus. 2010-03-13. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
- ^ "Brennstoffzellen: Siemens beauftragt Ballard Power" (in German). electrive.net. 2017-11-15. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
- ^ "Ballard Receives PO From Anglo American for 900kW of Fuel Cell Modules to Support Mining Truck Demonstration Project". PR Newswire. 2019-10-29. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
- ^ "Ballard to produce FC modules for ships in Denmark". electrive.net. 2019-04-04. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
- ^ "LH2 Vessel Liquid H2 concept Validation for Efficient, Scaled and Stacked FC Electric Power Systems". energiforskning.dk. 2020-03-25. Archived from the original on 2020-03-28. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
- ^ "Ballard udvikler maritim brændselscelle i Hobro" (in Danish). energiforskning.dk. 25 March 2020. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
- ^ "Flagships Partners". flagships.eu. 2019. Archived from the original on 2020-04-06. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "Ballard Signs ESAs for Fuel Cell Stacks to Support Backup Power Systems at German Radio Towers". Ballard Power Systems. 2020-01-13. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
- ^ "Fuel Cells: The Better Backup Power Solution for Scandinavia". H2 View. 2020-03-25. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
- ^ "UAV Fuel Cells Tested in Cold-Weather Conditions". Unmanned Systems Technology. 2019-12-30. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
- ^ "Ballard Powers Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles For Unprecedented 30 Million Kilometers - Enough to Circle the Globe 750 Times". PRNewswire. 2020-01-27. Retrieved 2021-10-05.
