Germany’s Heliocentris Energy Solutions has a secured €1.5m ($1.9m) grant for the development of a new kind of hydrogen-based fuel cell emergency power supply that does not require highly elaborate hydrogen cylinder logistics.
Among other things, the non-refundable grant will be used for grid-connected mobile phone base stations to ensure full availability in the event of blackouts.
Henrik Colell, CTO of Heliocentris, said: “This subsidised project will enable us to develop a ground-breaking, autonomous emergency power supply that does not require fuel cell logistics and that will have significantly lower maintenance costs even with highly competitive acquisition costs.”
The project is scheduled to be concluded by mid-2016. The funding comes from the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure as part of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology National Innovation Programme (NIP).