Under what conditions are fuel cells a viable alternate source of power compared with diesel generators? How does the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and energy logistics processes compare to diesel? To find out, TowerXchange spoke to the pre-eminent fuel cell company worldwide, Ballard Power Systems, who have been at the forefront of fuel cell development for applications such as automotive, telecom backup power, material handling and buses. More recently Ballard has added focus on Engineering Services given its unmatched industry “know how” from working with Daimler and Ford and now Volkswagen. However, one of Ballard’s key commercial markets is in telecom, where their fuel cell technology is used to provide power at unreliable and off-grid cell sites and in emergency situations caused by natural disasters or extreme weather.
Ballard: When should fuel cells replace diesel power at emerging market cell sites?
