My thanks to Barry in our sales office for bringing this to my attention. St Louis University are working on a fuel cell that could one day power small portable electronic devices like iPODs. The trick is that the fuel cells runs on sugar or any sugar source ranging from soft drinks to the sap from trees. More than this, the charged up device can run up to four hours longer than a traditional Ion-Lithium battery.

Somehow this reminds me of the scene from ‘Back To The Future 2′ when Doc Brown puts old banana skins in his tank to fuel his car. It could happen.

Carbon footprinting is a concept developed to convey how much CO2 we generate and the impact we leave on the environment. As we become even greener in our outlook I wonder if it will be not just politicians and airlines that start to talk about their ‘carbon footprints’.

Many companies, especially goods manufacturers like Riello UPS invest huge sums in R&D projects to develop energy saving products. A key example would be the new Multi Plus UPS which can achieve a 35% saving in energy operation compared to a traditional uninterruptible power supply. With the EU forcing us down the WEEE and RoHS roads I wonder not if but when will goods manufacturers be asked to provide ‘carbon footprints’ for their products to allow a truely green comparison.

I was with someone today who is emerging as a leading UK light on the subject of fuel cells and their use in standby power applications. He surprised us all by bringing to the meeting the smallest fuel cell application we have seen so far – a racing car that retails for £59.95

This was a wonderful demonstration of the concept, providing proof of its viability in a relatively simple, low-cost executive toy. For uninterruptible power supply manufacturers like Riello UPS, it is only a matter of time before fuel cells are included in our portfolio as viable alternatives to diesel and LPG generated standby power.

Are they that viable I here you ask ? Well they are getting there is the answer. When compared to a diesel generator installation there are several benefits aside from a minute environmental impact in terms of heat output when delivering power. Fuel cells are virtually silent in operation (they have a slight ‘humming’ sound when active) with relatively low maintenance and operating costs. Installation is really no more complicated than an air conditioning or generator system in reality, even if one takes into account the storage on-site of their fuel – hydrogen gas – which is supplied in pressured containers.

I passed a house today that has recently been renovated and it has solar panels on its roof. This reminded me to post up an entry on Genersys a solar panel company I recently came across. Actually it was a book titled ‘The Energy Age’ by their Chief Executive Robert Kyriakides that struck me when I was in B&Q. Solar really is an untapped market in my view and one that can be far more practical than say wind power. My counterparts in the Riello UPS German Office are more focused on our inverters for solar use than we are in the UK. I am told this is because the German government is far keener on solar than they are here.