Hydrogen energy is regarded as the clean energy with the greatest development potential in the 21st century. Human beings have become interested in the application of hydrogen energy 200 years ago. Since the 1970s, many countries and regions in the world have carried out extensive research on hydrogen energy. . 2015 is considered the first year of industrialization of hydrogen fuel cells. Research on hydrogen fuel cell technology flourishes, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are put on the market, hydrogen fuel cell stationary power generation enters commercial operation mode, and hydrogen fuel cells continue to explore other application fields. commercial development path. From the overall perspective of the global development of hydrogen energy and hydrogen fuel cells, developed countries such as Europe, the United States, and Japan continue to increase R&D investment and policy support. Hydrogen energy and hydrogen fuel cells are widely used in transportation, stationary power generation, communication base station backup power, and materials. The field of transportation has shown signs of marketization, and the application of hydrogen fuel cell technology has generally emerged in the early stages of commercialization. Among them, the early market promotion of Toyota Motor Corporation's Maria FCV and Hyundai Motor Corporation's ix35 FCV, as well as the construction process of supporting hydrogen refueling stations, are particularly eye-catching. The actions and results achieved by the two major automobile manufacturers will encourage other automobile companies to add hydrogen fuel. The great courage to commercialize battery vehicles has made people look forward to the future development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. 1. PlugPower: Order-driven stock price explosion (1) Company profile PlugPower is a supplier established in 1999 that focuses on the design, development, manufacturing and sales of fuel cell systems for material handling forklifts. It is currently the world's largest fuel cell system supplier. Battery integrated system provider. The company's main products are proton exchange membrane fuel cells and fuel processing technology and fuel cell/battery hybrid technology. The company's core product is the hydrogen-fuelled PEMGenDrive product, which is primarily used in industrial off-road (forklift or material handling) applications in high-volume manufacturing and high-throughput locations, i.e. the material handling market within the transportation sector. In addition to GenDrive, the company also has limited The company produces GenSys and GenCore products, which are also hydrogen-fueled proton exchange membrane battery systems, mainly providing backup power for critical infrastructure. From the perspective of Plug's supply chain, its upstream suppliers include fuel cell manufacturer Ballard, and gas suppliers BASF and AirLiquide; downstream customers include Nestlé, Walmart, FedEx and other companies with large cargo volumes. From this point of view, the company's focus should be on the assembly of systems (such as forklifts). The company's main customers are Steele, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Wal-Mart, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and other companies. Current orders are mainly focused on GenDrive products, that is, material handling forklift applications. Thanks to the continuous development of fuel cell forklifts, the company achieved explosive growth in orders in the fourth quarter of 2013. The company adopts a direct sales model similar to Apple, and its products are sold all over the world, mainly in North America. The shipment volume of the company's core product, GenDrive fuel cell system, has also gradually increased in recent years, rapidly increasing from 1,100 units in 2010 to 15,000 units in 2016. With the gradual increase in orders, Plug's sales are expected to continue Improve and continue to drive the company's performance development. As product sales continue to rise, product costs are increasing year by year. In 2011, they were reduced to 94% of the costs in 2010, and in 2016, they were reduced to 53%. A huge reduction in costs is achieved. The reduction in costs is conducive to increasing the company's revenue. At the same time, it will help promote the gradual decline in the price of fuel cell products, thereby increasing their popularity. (2) Patent Distribution Plug Company has a certain number of basic patents. The number of patent applications increased rapidly from 1997 to 2000, and then maintained at a relatively high level. However, the number of patents shrank sharply starting from 2003, especially from 2003 onwards. From 2008 to 2012, the company hardly applied for patents. Judging from the company's R&D expenditure, it is basically consistent with patent applications. From 2008 to 2012, the company's R&D expenditures were below US$20 million, much lower than the peak of US$60 million. Therefore, it is believed that the company was in the research and development stage from 1997 to 2007, and began to shift to patents in 2009. City dynasty. Among Plug's highly cited patents, they mainly involve technologies such as fuel processing systems, fuel cell systems, fuel cell components, and proton exchange membrane fuel cells. From this, we can infer that the company's core patented technologies also revolve around the above patents. Although the company's current focus is on system assembly, it has always mastered fuel cell-related technologies, so the company always has the say in fuel cell technology. 2. Ballard Power Systems: PLUG cooperates with a technically strong battery supplier (1) Company Profile Ballard Power Systems is a Canadian company founded in 1979. The company began developing fuel cells in 1983. From 2007 to 2009, the company completed the transition from long-term, high-cost automotive fuel cell research and development to the commercialization of clean energy fuel cell products. The company's current main business is the design, development, manufacturing and service of proton exchange membrane fuel cell products (including fuel cell stacks, modules and systems), focusing on the commercial market (telecom backup power, material handling and engineering services) and the development stage market (Bus, distributed generation and continuous power supply, etc.). To date, the company's hydrogen fuel cell shipments have reached nearly 150MW, making it the undisputed leader in the hydrogen fuel cell industry. Ballard offers a variety of products to cover different needs. Its products cover major applications in the stationary field and transportation field. Ballard's customer base is very wide. In the field of backup power supply, through the interested DanthermPower Company As well as partners Cascadiant and Inala Technologies, the company sells its products to companies around the world such as SINE, Hutchison Telecom and Vodacom; in the material handling market, the company has a long-term cooperative relationship with PlugPower, all of PlugPower's GenDrive fuel cell system series products Ballard's fuel cell stack is used; the main customers in the bus field are BAE Systems and WanHool; in the distributed power generation field, the complete battery system ClearGen is mainly sold to TOYOTA and FirstEnergy. The company's main revenue comes from fuel cell products and engineering services, of which fuel cell products account for a large proportion and are growing year by year, becoming the support point of revenue. The company's main operating income has been gradually declining in recent years due to the company's transformation and development since 2010. However, due to the rapid development of fuel cells since 2012, it is expected that the company's main operating income will increase significantly in the future, and the company's net profit will also increase. Will gradually reduce losses and move towards profitability. The company's fuel cell products are divided into three parts: fuel cell stacks, modules and systems. The fuel cell stacks and fuel cell systems are the main parts. Among them, fuel cell system shipments have increased year by year, rapidly increasing from 58 units in 2010 to 399 units in 2012. As for the fuel cell stack, you can get a glimpse of it from PlugPower's data. Since Ballard and PlugPower have a long-term cooperative relationship, all PlugPower's GenDrive fuel cell system products use Ballard's fuel cell stacks. Therefore, it can be seen from Plug's increasing GenDrive shipments year by year. Sales of Ballard's related battery stack products are also rising. Since then, we can infer that the company's product shipments have shown an increasing trend year by year. (2) Patent analysis Ballard Company first applied for a patent in 1990, and then it rapidly increased from 1996 to the peak of patent applications in 2001. After a rapid increase, it began to decline rapidly in 2004, and reached its peak in 2001. The decline gradually slowed down in 2005. Since there is generally an lag period of 18 months from patent application to patent publication, the overall change trend in the number of patent publications in the figure lags behind the application change curve by one and a half years. Combining patent applications with the company's R&D expenditures, Ballard was in the R&D stage from 1996 to around 2005. At this stage, R&D expenditures were relatively high and the number of patent applications was high. Since 2005, R&D expenditures and Patent applications are on the decline, and companies are beginning to turn their R&D results into practical applications. A citation analysis of all Ballard's patent families found that there are more than 20 patent families that have been cited more than 60 times. Among them, the patent family with the most citations has been cited more than 200 times, ranking No. The two highly cited patents have been cited nearly 200 times, which shows the great influence of the company's invention patents. Ballard's technology focuses on fuel cell electrolytes, solid oxide electrolyte cells, fuel cell supply equipment, fuel cell auxiliary devices or methods for pressure control, proton exchange membrane fuel cells, etc. Since the company's R&D expenditure has been low since 2009, it has not had a major impact on the overall patent distribution. Therefore, we believe that Ballard's technology distribution in recent years has remained in the original established technology fields and has not expanded into new ones. field. 3. FuelCellEnergy: Company profile of the pacesetter in the stationary field. FuelCellEnergy is a world-leading comprehensive fuel cell company. The company was founded in 1969 and was formerly known as Energy Research Company. It was later renamed FuelCellEnergy in 1999. The company is mainly engaged in the research of stationary fuel cells, and its main products are MCFCs that can be used for on-site power generation, cogeneration and distributed power generation. The products mainly serve the electric power industry, businesses and enterprises, government agencies, etc. At present, the company's product DFC power plants have produced ultra-clean, efficient and reliable power in more than 50 locations around the world. The company has produced more than 1.5 billion kilowatt-hours of ultra-clean electricity and has more than 300 megawatts of installed power generation capacity. The company's main products are DFC series power generation products, which are mainly used as primary power sources, cogeneration and distributed power generation. The output span of the company's products is extremely wide, ranging from hundreds of kilowatts to several megawatts. Such output is unparalleled in other similar products. The products are at a relatively high level, so DFC products are extremely competitive in the field of stationary fuel cells. In the FuelCellEnergy supply chain, the upstream supplier POSCO is mainly engaged in the production and sales of steel rolled products and plates. It provides FuelCellEnergy with the external packaging materials needed to produce DFC series products. FuelCellEnergy's customers are mainly US government agencies, POSCO and DOMINION. Among them, POSCO has a construction division, which is engaged in the construction of industrial plants and civil construction projects. Another major customer, DOMINION, is an energy company mainly engaged in the production and transportation of energy, with numerous power generation portfolios and natural gas transmission facilities. Judging from the functions of DFC products, these two customers should directly integrate the available products into the original system and put them into use, either for power generation or combined heat and power generation. From the perspective of the entire supply chain, in addition to non-core packaging materials, components of FuelCellEnergy products such as fuel cells are produced by themselves, including system assembly, so its core technology should also focus on fuel cells and system assembly. aspects. With the application of new technologies such as hydrogen energy vehicles and stationary fuel cells, the world has set off a wave of hydrogen energy utilization. According to the forecast of the Nikkei BP Clean Technology Research Institute, the market size of global hydrogen infrastructure will increase from 7% in 2005 to 7% in 2005. Trillion yen gradually increased to about 190 trillion yen in 2016. The largest of these are stationary fuel cells and fuel cell vehicles, both of which will reach full popularity around 2030. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles may compete with lithium battery vehicles. The breakthrough in the field of transportation is expected to be completed by 2017. In PEMFC, the dosage of precious metal catalyst platinum is also gradually reduced. Coupled with the reduction in the cost of electrolyzers, the cost of PEMFC continues to decrease. According to a report by the British Carbon Trust Consulting Company, if fuel cell vehicles need to be mass-produced, their cost will need to reach US$36/kW to compete with internal combustion engine vehicles, which is currently US$47/kW. The space for imagination gradually opens up. At present, domestic attention to hydrogen fuel cells is gradually increasing, but it is still limited to companies with similar technologies. In the future, as the theme hype deepens, companies in the upstream and downstream of the industry chain will also be unearthed. Like the Tesla industry chain theme investment, the stocks of companies that supply materials such as positive and negative electrodes and electrolytes required for hydrogen fuel cells will also rise sharply. World Hydrogen Fuel Cell Market Prospects The characteristics of fuel cells determine that they have broad application prospects. First, it can be used as a small power generation device; second, as a long-lasting "battery"; third, it can be used in electric vehicles. Fuel cells were first used as power generation equipment because their prices were likely to be competitive with general power generation equipment. However, the commercial application prospects of fuel cells in electric vehicles are long-term, because cars require generators, which are much cheaper than fuel cells. Therefore, in the short term, it is difficult for fuel cell vehicles to compete with other cars in terms of price. compete with each other. Currently, fuel cell research and development focuses on four major technologies: (1) electrolyte membrane; (2) electrode; (3) fuel; (4) system structure. Manufacturers in Japan, the United States and Europe develop fuel cells for portable electronic devices, paying particular attention to material research and development in aspects (1) to (3). The fourth aspect of the research topic is the system structure of the fuel cell. The first three aspects are the necessary preparations to constitute the fuel cell, while the system structure is the final result of the fuel cell. The development, research and commercialization of solid oxide fuel cells is an important means to solve the problem of energy conservation and environmental protection in the world. It has received widespread attention from many countries in the world, including the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia, South Korea, etc. Although there are still some problems with solid oxide fuels, such as electrode materials, manufacturing costs, high operating temperatures, etc., the flaws cannot be concealed. Accelerating the development of solid oxide fuel cells must be the general trend of world development. Reducing battery operating temperature and miniaturization are the development trends of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC). The material preparation of its key components has always become a bottleneck restricting the development of solid oxide fuel cells. The key technologies that should be broken through mainly include: a) high-performance electrode materials and their preparation technology; b) preparation technology of new electrolyte materials and electrode supporting electrolyte separators; c) battery structure optimization design and its preparation technology; d) battery structure, Performance and characterization studies. With the further development of fuel cell technology, it will be possible toAccelerate the pace of my country's economic construction and sustainable development. The emergence and development of fuel cells will bring a profound revolution to portable electronic devices, and will also affect the automotive industry, residences, and centralized power supply systems in all aspects of society. In the 21st century, it will bring mankind from centralized power supply to a new era of decentralized power supply. Although solar power supply can replace part of the energy, it is related to the weather and is restricted by the climate; there are safety issues in the use of nuclear energy; only fuel cell power supply has no carbon dioxide emissions and can reduce the greenhouse effect and global warming. It solves the problem of global environmental pollution caused by thermal power generation. It is a pure green and clean energy.

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