Technology Strategy Board Makes £7 million investment in fuel-cells

Projects backed include environmentally-friendly london taxi

The Technology Strategy Board has invested £7 million in fuel-cell and hydrogen projects in an effort to “accelerate the development” of the technologies.

The government-backed body announced it was funding projects such as a fuel-cell powered London taxi, which is being developed by a consortium including Lotus Engineering, Intelligent Energy and taxi manufacturer LTI, and a 10kW combined heat and power system relying on proton exchange membrane fuel-cell technology.

Dr Filomena La Porta, lead technologist for energy generation and supply at the TSB, said that although fuel cells had been around for a long time – they were developed in the 1930s – a considerable effort was still required to commercialise them. She added that the TSB was aiming to back projects involving a number of partners in niche areas that might prove to be ideal for market entry. “Six or seven years ago there was a lot of talk about fuel cells before they were really ready to be used extensively in the market, which damaged their reputation,” she said.

La Porta added that technologies such as fuel cells and hydrogen were not being driven by environmental targets in quite the same way as renewables, where there are firm goals set by the UK in terms of their contribution to electricity supply. The switch to renewables is fuelled by the government’s goals for reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, which are 34% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.

The TSB is working on a funding round for tidal and wave technologies currently, La Porta added. This will include work on tidal systems in terms of their resistance to operating in harsh environments, how straightforward they are to deploy, and how they perform as energy-generation devices.