News

SatCon Creates Fuel Cell Division

January 13, 2000 by Jeff Shepard

SatCon Technology Corp. (Cambridge, MA) recently announced that it has established a new operating division, the Advanced Fuel Cell Power Products Division, formerly HyComp (Marlborough, MA).SatCon builds power converter modules for use in residential fuel cell power generation systems. The company claims the modules can also be sized for commercial applications including small businesses, factories, industrial parks and shopping malls. According to the company, the new division will market and sell SatCon's family of fuel cell power converters, controllers and amplifiers. The new division will also market and sell Ling Electronics' new power converter product line, SatCon/FMI's power converters for fuel cell automobiles, as well as manufacture key proprietary components for all of SatCon's fuel cell power converter product lines."We are already supplying the major fuel cell manufacturers with our power converter products, that are smaller and more efficient, and we have a $10.0 million dollar Department of Energy (DoE) contract to reduce the costs of manufacturing the product by actually installing a production line," said David Eisenhaure, SatCon's president and CEO. "We will transition that work and install the production line at the Advanced Fuel Cell Power Products Division to support building power converters for fuel cell power generators as well as for fuel cell automobiles. Fuel cells are also an ideal replacement for current internal combustion engines in automobiles because they are environmentally clean. Some 60 million cars are produced each year worldwide, which represents a significant opportunity for fuel cell engines and power converters that could reduce air pollution and increase fuel economy."