With the timelines to real commercial volumes for automotive applications several years away, how are fuel cell developers building sustainable businesses that will carry them towards and beyond fuel cell commercialization for automotive markets?

At Ballard, we have a simple but compelling objective - to work with customers and partners to fast-track commercialisation of fuel cells. Focused on what we do best -- designing, developing, and manufacturing fuel cell stacks -- our strategy is to work closely with lead customers in key markets. They will take our technology and integrate it into their products, with Ballard supplying service and application engineering support to meet our customers' needs.

The Ballard strategy balances both near and longer term opportunities to build growth in fuel cell products sales. A key objective is increased sales of fuel cells into the residential cogeneration market in Japan, materials handling in North America, and backup power, globally. Yes, we continue to develop technology for eventual high volume automotive applications. But we are looking to these near term markets - residential cogen, materials handling, and backup power - to build confidence in the commercial viability of fuel cell technology for a variety of applications, and to expand the number of companies that have systems integration capabilities to build products that can be used by end-customers.

Noordin Nanji, Ballard's VP and Chief Customer Officer will discuss the fuel cell value proposition for each of these markets, and offer a rationale for why end-users, system integrators, and OEMs should look to fuel cells today to provide alternative power solutions.

Noordin will also discuss some of the challenges the industry faces in making fuel cells a commercial reality (from infrastructure issues, to high fuel cell costs, to challenges around systems development and integration etc.), and how select markets may address many of these.

For example, in the residential cogen market in Japan, fueling infrastructure is not an issue as the cogen system utilizes reformed natural gas or kerosene. Similarly, government subsidies are in place to help offset costs as the technology matures and volumes ramp up. And, in some early-adopter markets the upside value of fuel cell solutions may be strong enough to create real financial traction, even without direct government intervention.

Ballard is executing a commercialisation strategy today, and early indicators validate our view: more than 200 homes in Japan are powered with Ballard fuel cells; Ballard technology is being evaluated for use in continuity of operations applications with the US Department of Defence; and small fleets of fuel cell forklifts are deployed with end-customers like Bridgestone Tire, Mitsubishi Caterpillar, and Wal-Mart.