Ballard Power: Shifting Dependence, Changing Structures

Abstract

The multi-billion dollar commercial potential of fuel cell technology has generated much excitement in the investment community over the past decade, an enthusiasm shared by those in energy and environment circles. Fuel cells have no moving parts, and generate electricity from an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and an oxidant, such as oxygen: the only by-products are water and heat, making it the ultimate clean technology. Although there are many potential markets, from electric generation to power for mobile phones, the idea of fuel cell vehicles has captured the public’s imagination. Its champions speak of the dawning of a ‘hydrogen age’ and the beginning of the end of the internal combustion engine (ICE).

This chapter is adapted from ‘Managing International Technology Alliances: Ballard Power and Fuel Cell Vehicle Development’, which won a Best Student Paper award at the Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology in 2001.