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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
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Searching... | 30000010050515 | HD9697.B324 K66 1999 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
Searching... | 33000000011300 | HD9697.B324 K66 1999 | Open Access Book | Gift Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Powering the Future tells the intriguing story of a tiny high-tech research company that developed one of the few truly revolutionary and transforming technologies of our era. Today, Ballard Power Systems is the world leader in fuel cell technology - a non-polluting energy source that could one day replace the internal combustion engine and power the cars of the future.
Geoffrey Ballard and a handful of colleagues - at the outset little more than "three guys and a prayer" - brought this neglected technology to the world. On gritty determination and a shoestring budget, they took fuel cells out of the lab and into the mainstream of business. They made the fuel cell smaller, cheaper, and vastly more powerful over an astonishingly short time - actually melting down cables as they realized a fifty-fold increase in power output.
Powering the Future not only chronicles the company's impressive rise against stiff odds and intense competition; it also teaches valuable lessons about vision and inspiration, creating a culture of loyalty and dedication, attracting and keeping talented people, and marketing and selling an underdog technology to the biggest players in the auto world. Powering the Future is the entertaining and inspirational account of how a tiny high-tech research company grew, and became poised to literally change the way we live.
Author Notes
Tom Koppel is an award-winning freelance writer. He has contributed feature articles on business, science, history, and travel to national magazines in Canada and the U.S. for nearly twenty years. He has been following the story of the Ballard fuel cell for over ten years, and first wrote about it for the Financial Post Magazine and Reader's Digest. He lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. Powering the Future is his second book.
Reviews 1
Library Journal Review
The fuel cell, an electrochemical device powered by hydrogen fuel and oxygen, might become the gasoline-substitute scientists have been searching for. (It generates electricity to drive the car's wheels silently.) In this new book, Canadian financial journalist Koppel details one company's contribution to development of the fuel cell for use in automobiles. Less an inside account than a technical report, the book describes the crucial years of research and development when a small staff with a small budget produced impressive results. But this report is flawed by its lack of cohesion, an over-reliance on technical jargon, and the absence of a real story. (It also lacks an index.) Much like Joe Sherman's Charging Ahead (LJ 7/98), this book prepares us for a world that is still a long way off. Some of the corporate intrigue detailed here is interesting, and the technically advanced may find this book compelling. But lay readers might want to wait for a useful electric car to actually get here before reading about it.ÄEric C. Shoaf, Brown Univ. Lib., Providence, RI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements | p. vi |
Preface | p. vii |
Chapter 1 Miracle Valley | p. 1 |
Chapter 2 Engine of the Future | p. 25 |
Chapter 3 A Notable Surface of Action | p. 37 |
Chapter 4 An Opportunity for Canada | p. 51 |
Chapter 5 Small is Beautiful | p. 65 |
Chapter 6 Three Guys and a Prayer | p. 89 |
Chapter 7 Nugget of Gold | p. 105 |
Chapter 8 Going for Broke | p. 119 |
Chapter 9 On the Road | p. 137 |
Chapter 10 Venturesome but Conservative | p. 159 |
Chapter 11 Bad Blood | p. 177 |
Chapter 12 Strategic Partners | p. 195 |
Chapter 13 Company with a Difference | p. 207 |
Chapter 14 The Starting Pistol Has Been Fired | p. 221 |
Chapter 15 The Intel of the Auto Industry | p. 235 |
Chapter 16 Dare to be Different | p. 253 |
Endnotes | p. 265 |
Index | p. 273 |