Hoku Scientific, the Hawaiian fuel cell membrane developer which unusually decided to morph into a solar company, has just signed a 99 year contract on 67 acres of land to build their silicon wafer fab. Given that US property prices are down about 10% of their peak, the company did well to wait until now.

Or maybe not !

Hoku Scientific is only going to an annual rent of $1 per year, for the next 99 years and they may even get another 450 acres.

When complete, the plant will produce 2000 metric tons of polysilicon per year. That the land is effectively being given to them will help a lot to offset what should be a headache for any energy intensive fab - Hawaii's staggeringly high electricity prices.

One of Hoku's clients for all this polysilicon will be Germany's Solar Fabrik, who like most solar module manufacturers, just can't get enough of the stuff.

Since my last post on Ballard Power Systems, the stock has dropped even further, closing yesterday at 5.77. Yet last month's 2006 results show that revenues are still rising - up from $42.2 m in 2005 to $49.8m in 2006. The annual loss was much bigger at $128m, but a good 90% of that was due to a discontinuation of their electric drive business and its sale to Siemens on February 15th 2007 . As it was loss-making, capital intensive and not part of their core business, this has to be a good move.

I know I've been down on fuel cells and particularly fuel cells for transport for some time, but I do wonder if there is now room for a small recovery for Ballard and the transport fuel cell sector in general?

Ballard's latest deal with the US Department of Defence for forklift trucks research and development has to be a step in the right direction. Some people think that fuel cells for transport may only make it in transport niches - and Toyota would agree that forklift trucks are one of them.

Arguably, Ballard's early error in the 1990s was to overstate the case and the learning curves for their technology. It was always around the corner and we would soon all be driving fuel cell cars fuelled by hydrogen.

Yet the corners came and the fuel cells didn't.

This state of delusional optimism was embodied by the now ludicrous sounding book "Powering the future - the ballard fuel cell and the race to change the world", published in late 1999.

To be fair though, Ballard weren't the only ones to come out of that period not smelling of roses. The dot com boom went bust and then there were of course more than a few corporate scandals.

All in all, what I'm saying is that by Ballard standards, 2007 has the potential to be quite a good year. So let's see what happens - and I shall be very interested to see their Q1 2007 results.

Ceramic Fuel Cells - has just signed deals to develop its fuel cells with two German companies -- energy supplier EWE and boiler manufacturer Bruns Heiztechnik GmbH.

An Australian company, it has a dual listing on London's AIM as well as the ASX. Yet the focus of their expansion is principally Europe. As their recent annual report mentioned, a site has been found in Germany for volume manufacturing at the Nuon Industrial Park, North Rhine Westphalia. And more encouragingly, unlike some fuel cell companies, the end of development and the start of mass manufacturing is within sight - about 2009, according to this roadshow powerpoint on page 10.

Back in August 2005, I said about CFC,

"It used to be thought that it was more a question of if fuel cells would ever come into the home. Now it's looking more like when. There are though two questions that need to be answered;

My guess is that over the next 2 to 3 years we will find out the answers. And Ceres Power and CFC will either be on the road to greatness or the dirt track to nowhere. "

The answer to the last question is for CFC now clear - as received EUR 3.2m in funding from the North Rhine Westphalia regional government. From 2009 we will find out if the home fuel cell market comes of age and consumers actually buy them.