Ecotality is lending its hydrogen technology expertise to a municipal electricity project that aims to squeeze natural gas from coal without emitting carbon dioxide.
The company is partnering with the Arizona Public Service public utility company, which received $8.9 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy for its Advanced Hydrogasification Project (AHP), according to Ecotality.
Hydrogasification is a process in which natural gas is made from coal without releasing the pollutant carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
For the AHP project, Ecotality will contribute its so-called Hydrality technology, a process it developed in conjunction with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory that produces hydrogen from magnesium pellets and water, with water as the only byproduct. The company has previously used the Hydrality process as an inboard source of power for hydrogen-powered vehicles.
In this case, the Hydrality process will be examined to figure out reactor and storage dynamics for large-scale hydrogen production. The hydrogen will be used in a high-temperature and high-pressure reaction with coal to produce methane.
Ecotality has been expanding its interests beyond hydrogen fuel and electricity. In September, the company purchased Innergy, a San Diego, Calif.-based company that makes mobile solar power technology, and in June it bought the fuel cell retailer Fuel Cell Store.
What the clean-energy industry needs more of is profitable companies and fewer science experiments.
So says Jonathan Read, the CEO of Ecotality, which announced on Thursday that its has signed an agreement to buy Innergy Power. The price was $3 million, Read said.
Solar power in the field.
(Credit: Innergy Power)The acquisition is part of Ecotality's plan to "roll up" different clean-electricity companies into a diversified and profitable business, Read said. A public company, Ecotality expects to be profitable next year, he said.
The company in June bought Fuel Cell Store, which sells hydrogen fuel cell gear to universities and labs, and it intends to announce another acquisition related to plug-in hybrid vehicles in the near future.
It also has a hydrogen-producing technology with Hydratus through a partnership with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
What binds these diversified businesses together is clean electricity, Read said.
"We would like a mesh technology to work for us from clean power to end-user applications," he said.
The strategy is to assemble different product lines and find areas of cross-pollination. For example, by buying Innergy, it gains manufacturing capability in rechargeable batteries that can be used in its hydrogen product lines.
The company also intends to use the money from commercial products and invest in "science projects," or more speculative energy technologies that have not yet reached commercial applications, Read said.
"Something that's missing in the clean-energy space is the move to commercialization and profitability. For every development project (at Ecotality) that's pure science will be two commercial businesses," he said.
The company is also looking at wind and energy efficiency.
After finishing its acquisition of Innergy in the fall, Ecotality intends to expand its storage and solar-panel production.
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