Colorado aspires to be world’s fuel-cell capital

State to chip in $2M for center to study gasoline alternative

The state of Colorado plans to invest $2 million to set up an elite fuel- cell research center in Golden – hoping it will become the world capital of a technology that could run our cars of the future.

By Gargi Chakrabarty, Rocky Mountain News

http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/business/article/0,1299,DRMN_4_2940401,00.html

The proposed Colorado Fuel Cell Research Center will be within the premises of the Colorado School of Mines. It will be a collaboration between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Gas Technology Institute, the state of Colorado and private companies.

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They hope to attract more than 100 top scientists and researchers to the center. Once the center is formally announced later this year, they expect to raise an additional $10 million in the first phase to pay for various projects.

"We have a grand vision: This center will be to fuel cells what Stanford University was to semiconductors," said W. Grover Coors of Boulder- based CoorsTek Inc. – a technology firm that will participate in the center.

"The research center will have the intellectual and academic critical mass to make Colorado a pioneer in fuel-cell technology."

Coors spoke Thursday during the fifth annual Governor’s Technology Summit.

Rick Grice, director of the Governor’s Office of Energy Management and Conservation, Thursday said the immediate priority was to attract top scientists from universities and the industry to work at the "first-rate institution."

His office helped raise the $2 million seed money from federal grants to the state.

Details about partnership, affiliation and funding are being finalized.

Robert Evans, an NREL scientist, has been on a sabbatical for the past year to work with the School of Mines to set up the research center.

Grice said it has not been decided if the proposed center would report to the recently opened Colorado Energy Research Institute at the School of Mines.

The center would compete with European and Asian countries, especially Germany, Denmark and Japan, that are furiously working on advancing fuel cell technology, Coors said.

"Colorado is an energy capital," Coors said, explaining the benefits of such a center in the state.

"It offers a great quality of life. I, as a research scientist, would like to work here."

Besides, such a center could potentially attract millions of dollars in investments and create hundreds of high-paying jobs, he added.

As an alternative to gasoline, fuel cells generate power – like batteries – on the principle of electrochemical reaction. Typically, the reaction is between oxygen and hydrogen.

Oxygen is derived from air, while hydrogen is obtained from natural gas, biomass, propane or even water.

Some scientists and Detroit carmakers believe that fuel cells will be the alternative to gasoline to run automobiles.

But the technology still has to overcome a few hurdles, the most important being its exorbitant cost.

The fuel cell in a Ford Motor prototype car costs $65,000. Adding the powertrain, specially designed body parts and accessories could jack up the price by thousands of dollars.

Scientists also have to figure out an efficient way to store the hydrogen in car tanks. And there will need to be hydrogen fueling stations, much like gas stations, across the country to promote this new technology to mainstream customers.

Golden-based NREL recently won a $10 million federal grant to research fuel storage that will help hydrogen cars drive for at least 300 miles on a full tank.

Some are skeptical of the grandiose research center, saying projects don’t always work out as originally planned.

For example, the Colorado Institute of Technology – first conceptualized in 1999 – was expected to be "the MIT of the Western United States." It was supposed to draw big investment from Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and other tech players.

Although CIT did take off, the technology bust of early 2000s put a damper on its grand vision.

Others say it is unfair to compare the two projects, since the scope and business model of the proposed fuel-cell research center is very different from CIT.

The proposed center could face challenges attracting venture capital funds.

"Colorado has not been a financial center for several years; therefore NREL and the Colorado School of Mines will have to actively promote this investment opportunity outside the state," said John Eckstein, a lawyer and former chairman of the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute.

"We will have to compete with other established universities for the research dollars."

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