Fuel Cell Technologies history

In 1998 the company succe ssfully demonstrated its nickel-zinc batteries for use in electric ca rs, bicycles and scooters, wheelchairs, trolling motors, and lawn mot ors.

Because fuel cells were now ERC's sole focus, the company changed its name to FuelCell Energy, Inc. in 1999.

The n, in 2000, Mercedes-Benz United States International Inc., Southern Company, and Alabama Municipal Electric Authority agreed to team up with FuelC ell to install a 250-kilowatt fuel cell power plant at the Mercedes-B enz plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in a pilot demonstration project.

He retired in June 2002, handing over the chairmanship to Leitman.

In the fall of 2004 it wa s reported to have $170 million in cash and a few weeks later ann ounced that it planned to make a private placement of $75 million in stock, the money earmarked for further development and commercial ization of its fuel cell products.

As oil prices soared in 2005, fuel cells and other forms of alternati ve power generation, received a boost, just as they had every time en ergy costs soared.

Fuel cells began to become commercial in a variety of applications in 2007, when they started to be sold to end-users with written warranties and service capability, and met the codes and standards of the markets in which they were sold.

These units began to be installed in homes from 2009, and more than 13,000 such units have been installed to date.