Fuel Cells: Applications and Opportunities

EscoVale’s Latest Fuel Cell Management Report

Fuel cells (FCs) offer outstanding efficiency, negligible emissions and inherent simplicity. These characteristics, together with massive market potential in the power generation, automotive and portable power sectors, place FCs amongst the most compelling of the emerging energy conversion technologies. They are now seen as front-runners in key business areas, such as zero and low emission vehicular powertrains and distributed generation markets. Investment has accelerated in recent years, with a further $2bn+ committed firmly (and over $10bn conditionally) to continue the task of commercializing a wide range of FC products.

EscoVale has unrivalled experience in emerging power technologies. This is based on business consultancy projects with a multi-$M aggregate value, conducted over the past 25 years. This report is the latest in the world's largest independent project investigating FC technical developments and business prospects. It has attracted clients from 60 countries in six continents who have ordered over 1,000 FC reports (including more than 300 of the type described here). This underlines the depth of global interest in fuel cells and confirms EscoVale’s role as a leading adviser to industry, government and potential investors.

Over 2,000 organizations worldwide are now developing and marketing FCs and their sub-systems. Others are evaluating the sector and its opportunities or threats. All need reliable information.

“Fuel Cells: Applications And Opportunities” is designed for managers, analysts and policy makers concerned with the energy, power plant, automotive and electronic equipment sectors.

Forecasts from within the sector are often dangerously optimistic – creating a dilemma for planners, potential investors and others interested in FC opportunities. This is compounded by:

the pace of development: many winners and losers will be determined by decisions made over the next year or so
technical diversity: half-a-dozen different FC technologies are vying for attention, offering a complex choice of performance characteristics
market diversity: FCs span the power spectrum from milliwatts to megawatts, in applications as varied as battery substitution in consumer products, military gensets, vehicular power, distributed energy, UPS and larger-scale generation/cogeneration.

“Fuel Cells: Applications And Opportunities” (Report #5040) of 350 pages is described further in the document attached. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the sector, with detailed forecasts of market evolution to 2025.

Clients ordering the report before the end of 2004 will also receive:

“Fuel Cells: The Sourcebook” – the latest electronic edition of this leading Reference Report (#3404). The CD contains over 400 pages of information on thousands of organizations involved in the development of FCs, sub-systems and materials.
Two days of individual consultancy time to ensure that clients extract the most from the resources devoted to this project.

Who Will Benefit?

The project is designed to help those requiring authoritative and independent information on the way in which fuel cells will progress over the period to 2025. Early clients for this report come from North and South America, Africa, Asia, Australasia and Europe. They include industry leaders with many different interests: energy industry • automotive companies (& others concerned with transport) • developers of fuel cells, their sub-systems and competing power conversion technologies • government departments • funding & investment agencies • consulting firms • manufacturers of power plant, batteries, prime movers etc

What Do They Think?

Clients’ comments on other reports in this series include:

"Good report, well written, worth its money. Congratulations!" – Shell International
"I believe this is an excellent source of information on fuel cells." – Methanex
"Very good market survey for power generation. A key reference for our own market survey. A very good report." –Advantica
"...only report I was aware of that addressed the international market comprehensively" – FC Developer
"… goes far beyond the basic technological aspects. It addresses the real issues of interest. In short, an excellent report" – Eskom
"... in my opinion, the most balanced report we have seen …" – Unicom Resources
"Well worth the money, it cost more to read it than to buy!" – Rolls-Royce