FuelCell Energy Inc (FCEL)

[WMsince2008]

A profitable fuel-cell company finally emerges amid industrywide losses
For now, SFC’s success is more exception than rule, but fuel-cell firms are betting that a green hydrogen revolution will soon reverse the entire industry’s fortunes.
20 June 2023
Several pieces of equipment are set up on a ledge in a snowy mountain range
Landslide monitoring equipment powered by an SFC fuel cell (SFC)





Eric Wesoff
Since the invention of the fuel cell in 1839, no company has been able to earn a profit from this energy-generating technology.

Until the historic moment in which we now find ourselves.

Germany’s SFC Energy, a maker of methanol-powered fuel cells for portable and remote applications, reported in March that it had generated $1.8 million in profit on $78 million in sales in 2022.

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But for now, SFC remains the exception to the rule rather than a harbinger of profitable fuel-cell firms to come.

Publicly traded fuel-cell companies have a long history of losing increasingly large sums of shareholder money. Ballard Power is in its fourth decade as a profitless company. Plug Power lost $724 million on $701 million in sales last year. Bloom Energy’s revenue is growing, but so are its losses.

Though fuel cells can use a number of input fuels, much of the buzz around the technology comes from its usefulness in harnessing hydrogen, which could in theory help decarbonize everything from transportation to home heating.

The recent hydrogen funding wave and the enormous potential of the hydrogen economy have bolstered the stock price of public fuel-cell companies. But those factors have not had the same effect on companies’ profits.

Take a look at the financial results of these firms over the last few years. Other than SFC, it’s the same grim story: heavy losses and no path to profitability.

Table showing the revenue and profit/loss of fuel cell companies
A brief rundown of fuel-cell technology
Fuel cells electrochemically convert hydrogen and oxygen into electricity without combustion.

To do this, the technology employs an assortment of electrolytes, catalysts, membranes and temperatures. But in almost all cases, the membranes are expensive to fabricate, and the technologies require costly precious-metal catalysts (typically platinum or palladium) or high process temperatures. Input fuels range from fossil gas to methanol to hydrogen.

https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/hydrogen/a-profitable-fuel-cell-company-finally-emerges-amid-industrywide-losses