New Energy New York held its first Fuel Cell Network Workshop on June 7, 2005 at Albany NanoTech, a leading global center for nanotechnology R&D. A subgroup of NENY, the New York Fuel Cell Network brings together NENY partners General Motors, Plug Power, MTI Micro, Delphi, Greater Rochester Enterprise (GRE) and Albany NanoTech's Energy and Environmental Technology Applications Center (E2TAC) to discuss collaborative fuel cell research and commercialization strategy.
The NY Fuel Cell Network is the first of several planned subgroups NENY will establish to advance clean energy technology, research and commercialization in New York State. Future NENY networks will include solar energy, power electronics, wind energy and superconductivity.
NENY's New York Fuel Cell Network is committed to the development of the fuel cell industry within New York State, with the Rochester-based General Motors fuel cell division taking a key leadership role. The Fuel Cell Network will be chaired by Andrew Bosco, Staff Engineer at General Motor's Fuel Cell Division. Membership is open to all NENY members engaged in active fuel cell research and/or commercialization. The network will operate as a coalition to guide, recommend and suggest R&D priorities; establish supplier networks across the entire industry value chain; and solicit funding from federal and state sources.
The inaugural meeting included keynote and overview presentations by Bob Callendar, NYSERDA, Matt Fronk, Chief Engineer of the General Motors Fuel Cell Program and Pradeep Haldar, followed by a discussion of the technical opportunities for fuel cell development by Andrew Bosco of GM and Richard Pollard, Manager of Fundamental Research for Plug Power. Xiaoming Ren, Director Fuel Cell Technology for MTI Micro and Steven Shaffer, Chief Engineer at Delphi Fuel Cell Development, both delivered presentations on diffusion media and interconnects and thermal insulation respectively -- topics identified as high priority research areas of interest by the NY Fuel Cell Network. The afternoon program consisted of discussions on the partnership and collaboration structure for the Fuel Cell Network, followed by technical breakout sessions.
