Rolls-Royce in venture to develop fuel cell-based power system
Apr. 6--SINGAPORE -- By Siti Rahil, Kyodo News International, Tokyo Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Luxury car maker Rolls-Royce plc signed an agreement Wednesday with a Singapore consortium that includes several Singapore government-linked entities to jointly invest US$100 million in a new venture to develop a commercially viable power system based on fuel cell technology.
The Singapore consortium comprises EDB Investments, the investment subsidiary
of the Economic Development Board, the state investment company Temasek
Holdings, and Accuron Technologies, a precision engineering group based in
Singapore.
A fuel cell manufacturing facility is expected to be established in Singapore
in the next few years when the product is ready for commercialization.
Rolls-Royce is planning to use Singapore as its base to reach out to other
markets in Asia.
"We see this as an iconic project for the development of the fuel cell
industry in Singapore. One can liken it to a 'queen bee,' which will attract
other companies to set up operations in Singapore and start a new fuel cell
ecosystem here," Singapore Minister for Community Development, Youth and
Sports, Vivian Balakrishnan said.
Fuel cell technology, which involves the generation of electricity by
combining fuel and air in an electrochemical reaction, has the capability to
generate power more efficiently than a conventional gas turbine, and is seen as
more environmentally friendly.
Rolls-Royce began researching fuel cell technologies in 1992 and decided to
pursue the commercialization of its expertise in 2002. The company is targeting
to create a stationary power-generation system providing around 1 megawatt of
electricity, for market delivery some time before the end of 2008.
-----
To see more of Kyodo News International, go to http://www.kyodonews.com
Copyright (c) 2005, Kyodo News International, Tokyo
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at
(800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail
reprints@krtinfo.com. BMW,