Suitable for both occasional use (infrequent, emergency power outages) and supplemental power (regular outages due to an unreliable grid), fuel cells offer a number of significant advantages over conventional batteries and diesel generators for backup power solutions. These include: greater reliability over a wide range of operating conditions; lower maintenance costs; longer operating life; reduced size, weight, installation footprint; and positive environmental impacts.
These advantages make fuel cell technology ideal for telecommunications backup applications. In the telecommunications environment, uninterrupted voice, data and video services are vital to business operation and competitive success. Ballard is supplying IdaTech LLC with the FCgen-1300 fuel cell product for integration into natural gas fuel cell systems, primarily for use by ACME Group at telecom cellular tower sites in India. In Europe, Ballard is working with Dantherm Power A/S of Denmark to provide complete backup power solutions to telecommunications providers. Ballard is also working with Plug Power to develop backup power solutions for the U.S. Department of Defense's 'Continuity of Operations (COOP)' initiative.
Ballard’s FCgen-1020ACS fuel cell product provides significant advantages to system integrators, and enables an extremely compact and cost-effective backup power solution. Featuring fast, dynamic response, robust and reliable operation, durable packaging and a simplified, air-cooled design, the FCgen-1020ACS is configurable for motive or stationary power applications – telecommunications backup among them - and is available in power increments ranging from 300 watts to 3 kilowatts.
The FCgen-1300, commercially available in 2010, is a liquid-cooled fuel cell product, capable of operating with reformed fuel that will maximize the size of the addressable market.
To learn more about the FCgen-1020ACS, click here.
To learn more about fuel cells in backup power applications, click here.
Contact us at marketing@ballard.com to discuss how this fuel cell product can improve the reliability of your backup power applications.
Click here to
watch a video showcasing
how Ballard is accelerating fuel
cell adoption in the wireless telecom backup power market.
