6/29/2003  University of South Carolina Wins Bid to Become National Science Foundation-designated Center for Fuel Cell Research by Matt Crenson - AP

Last year the Department of Energy convened a committee of energy experts, many from auto and oil companies, to draft a National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap that addresses the production issue and many others. As a renewable energy advocate, American Solar Energy Society chairman Mike Niklas felt hopelessly outgunned at the meeting. "There was hardly anybody there from renewables and there were hundreds of people who represented the coal industry and the nuclear industry," Niklas said. "It was a joke." Environmentalists complain that the Bush administration is putting too much emphasis on fossil fuels and nuclear power as hydrogen sources, and ignoring pollution-free renewable alternatives.

6/27/2003  Quantum and Global Settle Dispute With Enbridge Inc. - Quantum Fuel Systems Worldwide

6/26/2003  Researchers Engineer Low-cost Hydrogen Catalyst by James Beal - University of Wisconsin - Madison

The simple, single-step process employs temperature, pressure and a catalyst to convert hydrocarbons such as glucose - the same energy source used by most plants and animals - into hydrogen, carbon dioxide and gaseous alkanes, with hydrogen constituting 50 percent of the products. More refined molecules, such as ethylene glycol and methanol, are almost completely converted to hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Because plants grown as fuel crops absorb the carbon dioxide released by the system, the process is greenhouse-gas neutral.

6/26/2003  UTC, Hyundai Agree To Develop Fuel Cell Power Plant - Dow Jones

Fuel cell power plants, which combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, produce water. Keeping the water from freezing when the fuel cell isn't in operation is a key challenge in developing fuel cells for vehicles, said Jan van Dokkum, president of UTC Fuel Cells.

6/25/2003  Any Alternative Fuel for Dream of the Open Road? by John Hughes -   Christian Science Monitor

6/24/2003  Mazda to Continue Work on Hydrogen-powered Rotary
Just-Auto.com  

The report said Mazda is also collaborating with its largest shareholder Ford in fuel-cell technology, which many industry watchers see as the future of low-emission driving.

6/17/2003  Role of Fossil Fuels, Nuclear Power Complicate Talks on Hydrogen's Future by H. Josef Hebert - Naples Daily News/AP

Whether hydrogen is produced from nuclear reactors or from coal-burning power plants, "we intend that all our hydrogen eventually be produced using emissions-free technologies," said Abraham. In one program to make hydrogen, he cited as an example, the Energy Department wants to pursue a $1 billion program to build a pollution-free coal burning power plant where carbon dioxide and other emissions would be captured. But some European leaders have expressed concern that the administration may be far less committed than Europe to research into renewable energy, which they want to make the cornerstone of a hydrogen energy economy.

6/17/2003  Conference Touts the Power of Hydrogen by Alison Bickerstaff - Seattle Times

"The fact that we have hydropower here might give us an opportunity to jump-start hydrogen production ... ," said Mike Lawrence, PNNL associate laboratory director, "but we should also be using nuclear energy and fossil fuels like coal to produce hydrogen." However, producing hydrogen from fossil fuels, which is the most widely used technique today, worries some because of the carbon-dioxide byproducts that result. ...Amory Lovins, a keynote speaker yesterday, said the carbon emitted by this process could be sequestered, or stopped from going into the atmosphere. He said switching to a hydrogen-based economy would greatly reduce carbon-dioxide emissions in the short term, and eliminate them entirely in the long term. Concerns about carbon-dioxide emissions should not prevent development of hydrogen fuel technology, Lovins said: "We shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

6/16/2003  Canadian Fuel-Cell Companys Take A Beating In Past 4 Weeks by Rachelle Younglai - Fuel Cell Works

6/16/2003  Leaks Keep Flying Wing from Using Fuel-cell System by Jan TenBruggencate - Honolulu Advertiser (HI)

Its hydrogen fuel cell operation was canceled after on-board sensors detected leaks. Engineers are working to resolve the issue and hope to get the 247-foot wing back in the air as early as June 26 to test the fuel cell. If it functions normally, it will fly as scheduled in July to attempt to stay aloft overnight, using solar power during the daylight and the fuel cell at night. On last week's flight, an air leak occurred in a line between the fuel cell and the compressor that delivers compressed air to it. The pressurized air is combined with hydrogen in the fuel cell to make power. A second leak occurred in a coolant system used to reduce temperatures in the fuel cell, which heats up when in use.

6/16/2003  Powering Up by Lee Dye - ABC News

Our economy would be based on hydrogen and electricity, delivered in prodigious quantities to our urban centers through a vast underground network of cables and pipes. Of course, that wasn't possible even a few years ago, but recent breakthroughs in science and technology have convinced a number of key players that there is no reason why it couldn't be done in the years ahead. They are proposing something they call a "SuperGrid," which would carry hydrogen and electricity from distant points to major population centers and shift this country away from its dependence on petroleum.

6/16/2003  U.S. to Seek Cooperation On Hydrogen Fuel-Cells by Jeffrey Ball and Scott Miller - Wall Street Journal

"We have here, at best, a Trojan horse," said Jeremy Rifkin, a Washington-based author of a recent book on hydrogen power and a consultant on hydrogen to European Commission President Romano Prodi. "It's a bit of a cynical effort to bring the world under the U.S. government umbrella with Bush identifying hydrogen with the Bush administration," Mr. Rifkin said. "But then when you look at the actual money they want to spend on hydrogen development, it's all to help his friends in the coal industry and oil industry and nuclear industry." In an interview on Friday, Mr. Abraham dismissed that criticism, saying the Bush administration has proposed significant spending on renewable energy in its latest budget proposal. "We're the ones on paper with a budget proposing to spend about half of our hydrogen research budget on renewables," he said. "Some people in the environmental community can't take yes for an answer."

6/16/2003  U.S. Takes Energy Plan to Europe by H. Josef Hebert - Daily Camera/AP

Since Bush in February drew attention to hydrogen development, the issue has attracted intense interest in Congress and elsewhere. Lawmakers are considering a $3 billion research effort to push hydrogen fuel-cell development and creation of a hydrogen fuel infrastructure. The Energy Department has begun a $1 billion program to develop a new generation coal-burning power plant that would make electricity and hydrogen while capturing carbon dioxide and other pollutants. The administration also supports a Senate proposal that calls for building a $1.1 billion nuclear reactor that would produce hydrogen.

6/13/2003  EU Denies Climbdown on Prodi's Hydrogen Pledge - Reuters

The widely-touted two billion euro promise put Brussels ahead of Washington, which plans to invest $1.7 billion over five years. Law-makers on both sides of the Atlantic hope hydrogen could play a key role in cutting pollution in future.  But on Thursday European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin said the actual level of Commission funding for hydrogen research would be between 250 million euros and 300 million euros over four years. Prodi was not being serious, he said.

6/13/2003  UK Losing Race for Fuel of the Future by James Reynolds -  The Scotsman (Scotland) 

The commercial development of an affordable hydrogen fuel cell is viewed as the cornerstone of bringing this transition into reality. But according to a recent survey carried out by the online industry magazine Fuel Cell Today, the UK has all but lost the race in its development - despite the fact that the technology behind fuel cells was invented, patented and produced in Britain. It is a claim supported by the majority of British organisations involved in fuel cells or related areas. Just as the British inventor Frank Whittle saw his revolutionary jet engine rejected for continued research and development sponsorship by British industry and government, so the fuel cell may be destined for the same ignominious fate, as foreign countries take the lead in further development.

6/13/2003  Hydrogen Fuel Use Could Wreck Ozone Layer, Study Says -- But Expert from Air Products Says Premise 'Unrealistic' by Kurt Blumenau    The Morning Call, Allentown (PA)

Equipment designs and operating standards hold companies to, at most, a ''near-zero'' leak standard, according to a statement by Nirmal Chatterjee, Air Products' vice president of environment, health and safety, and corporate engineering.   ''To assume and report an expected 10 to 20 percent leakage of hydrogen, from any source, is unrealistic,'' Chatterjee said. ''From a safety, environmental and economic standpoint, it would make the technology unfeasible.''  ''I can't imagine how anybody could assume 10 to 20 percent leakage of hydrogen,'' added Sandy Thomas, president of H2Gen Innovations, a fuel cell developer in Alexandria, Va.

6/11/2003  Ottawa Said Eyeing Big Fuel-cell Investment by Peter Kennedy and Steven Chase  Globe and Mail (Canada)

    Fuel-cell industry officials are hoping Ottawa will be prepared to invest up to $200-million to $300-million to help the sector keep pace with rivals in Asia, the United States and Europe, which are racing to develop fuel cells.

6/11/2003  Investors Said Eyeing the Micro Fuel Cell Sector - Reuters

Wal van Lierop, president of the private venture capital firm Chrysalix Energy, said while many people think of fuel cells as power sources for cars, the first widespread use will actually be in equipment now powered by batteries. ...Van Lierop said larger venture capital firms are again "sniffing around" the sector, realizing the power demands of equipment like cellphones or laptop computers are outstripping battery technology and manufacturers will need "micro" fuel cells.

6/10/2003  Gov't Passing Up Bargain Says Fuel Cell's Godfather by Jim Jamieson - The Province/Canada.com

Ballard said hydrogen fuel-cell cars have the highest profile, but they will likely be the last products to hit the consumer stream. "What we're up against is you're looking at a fuel cell that you can produce for $500 a kilowatt hour, but that has got to come down to $50 [to be comparable to a gas-powered engine]," he said. "As we come down this slide to $50, market niches are going to open up. And as they open up, distribution for hydrogen to these niches will also be developed."

6/9/2003  Westport Delivers Hydrogen/Natural Gas Bus Engine to SunLine Transit - Canada Newswire

Tests carried out in Vancouver on a Cummins Westport engine calibrated to run on a blend of 20% hydrogen and 80% natural gas indicate a dramatic reduction in oxides of nitrogen (NOx), the precursor to smog and ground-level ozone, of over 60% compared to the newest diesel engines, or over 80% cleaner than the average transit bus on the road today in North America. Additionally, each hydrogen-natural gas fueled bus can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 tonnes per year. The engine's original torque and fuel efficiency remain unchanged.

6/9/2003  Ford to Put Fuel Cell-powered Focuses Into Fleets Early Next Year by Harry Stoffer - AutoWeek

Ford and its partners in the effort say the goals are to test the evolving technology, educate the public about fuel cells and find out how drivers and fleet operators react to fuel cell power and hydrogen refueling. Other organizers are Natural Resources Canada, a government agency, and Fuel Cells Canada, an industry association. Vancouver is home to Ballard Power Systems Inc., which produces Ford's fuel cell stacks. Ford owns 19.1 percent of Ballard. Ford joins a growing list of companies that are subjecting limited numbers of fuel cell-powered vehicles to real-world operating conditions in North America.

6/9/2003  San Joaquin Valley Group Joins in Eco-friendly Fuel-cell Project by Audrey Cooper - The Stockton Record (CA)

A group of San Joaquin County businesspeople have joined with a Sacramento-based fuel-cell company to build the first California-grown fuel-cell project in the Central Valley. The plan is to use eco-friendly fuel cells as a backup energy source for a Stockton cell-phone communication tower.

6/6/2003  American Jewish Congress Organizes U.S.-Israel Energy Conference

An inaugural international leadership conference to develop an energy independence program will take place August 26-28 in Jerusalem, Israel. "Cooperation for Energy Independence of Democracies in the 21st Century" is hosted by the American Jewish Congress, and is co-sponsored by AJCongress, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructures and concerned industry. Assistant U.S. Secretary of Energy David Garman will lead the Department of Energy delegation, and Israeli Minister Joseph Paritzky will lead the Ministry of National Infrastructures team. The conference, under development for over a year, incorporates the joint vision of applying renewable energy technology to improve the energy security of the United States and Israel. The President emphasized the promise of hydrogen in his State of the Union Address and followed that with the June 2 announcement from the White House of a Presidential Action, an agreement with G-8 Leaders to develop hydrogen fuel cell technology, cleaner fossil fuel technologies, and new-generation nuclear technologies. The U.S. is investing $1.7 billion in the development of hydrogen fuel cell technology and a hydrogen-powered "FreedomCAR." Conference goals include launching a process of ongoing cooperation between the Department of Energy and the Ministry of National Infrastructures on renewable and sustainable energy research, development and commercialization, including joint demonstration projects. "We are trying to help Israel and America to jointly develop energy projects as they have done so successfully in the security realm," said Jack Rosen, President of the American Jewish Congress. "This should also ultimately lead to the creation of a new energy research and development industry in Israel," Mr. Rosen said. American Jewish Congress promotes energy efficiency, with the aim of combining a commitment to a cleaner environment with the strategic goal of reducing the world's dependence on oil. The AJCongress supports hybrid cars, as well as the Bush Administration's FreedomCAR and Hydrogen Infrastructure Initiatives. "Energy efficiency is the swiftest and most secure way to shrink dependence on foreign oil," said Jack Halpern, Chairman of the American Jewish Congress Energy Independence Task Force. Formulating a ‘Manhattan Project' that will reduce dependence on Middle Eastern oil is the immediate goal of the August conference that will bring together government officials from around the globe. "America needs a ‘Manhattan Project' program to achieve energy independence," said J. Morton Davis, Vice-Chairman of the American Jewish Congress Energy Independence Task Force. "Furthermore," Mr. Davis continued, "by producing new batteries, new and more efficient motors, and state of the art fuel cell technologies we can dramatically improve our precious world's environment."

June 2003  Hydrogen's Dirty Secret  by Barry C. Lynn     Mother Jones

What Bush didn't reveal in his nationwide address, however, is that his administration has been working quietly to ensure that the system used to produce hydrogen will be as fossil fuel-dependent -- and potentially as dirty -- as the one that fuels today's SUVs. According to the administration's National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap, drafted last year in concert with the energy industry, up to 90 percent of all hydrogen will be refined from oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuels -- in a process using energy generated by burning oil, coal, and natural gas. The remaining 10 percent will be cracked from water using nuclear energy.

5/29/2003  Ohio Governor Bob Taft Announces $18 Million for CWRU - Office of the Ohio Governor

Wright Center of Innovation Award to expand fuel cell research.

5/19/03  Oil Executive Says Get Real About Hydrogen Fuel Cells - Pacific Business News (HI)

Vesey's remarks seem to assume that when and if cars run on hydrogen, the hydrogen will be produced by the oil industry. This may not be a given. Hoku Scientific is underwritten in part by Hawaiian Electric, and electric utilities have shown interest in hydrogen fuel on the mainland as well. Vesey said hydrogen production today is equivalent to 1 percent of crude oil production, more perhaps than some consumers might have expected for a still-nascent industry.

5/17/2003  Tanker Ignites Near Ontario, California by David Bradvica - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (CA)

Huddleston estimated that the tanker burned off about 32,000 cubic feet of hydrogen over a 2 1/2-hour period before the flame was extinguished. The tanker contained about 100,000 cubic feet in 10 separate tubes. Firefighters climbed on the tanker truck during the incident to shut off the other nine tubes so their contents would not burn off as well, Huddleston said.

5/15/2003  P&Z Approves Zoning Request for Hydrogen Engine Center by Natalie Spray - The Algona (IA)

The Algona Planning and Zoning Commission approved a request Tuesday evening to rezone the area on which the former Armory building and current 4-H exhibit hall sits from a conservation district to light manufacturing. Ted Hollinger hopes to use the building as a workspace for a Hydrogen engine center, where he will convert gas engines into hydrogen engines.

5/15/2003  Enbridge Asks Court to Kill Global Thermoelectric-Quantum Fuel Merger by Steve Erwin and James Stevenson - Canadian Press

In July 2000, Enbridge bought $25 million worth of preferred Global shares at a price of $24.50 each. On Thursday, Global's common shares traded at $2.45, down 25 cents on the day, a drop of about nine per cent. ...Under the proposed merger deal, Global's shareholders would receive about $3.69 worth of Quantum shares for each Global common share. ...GM agreed late last month to vote its shares in favour of the combination.

5/12/2003   Renewable Energy Projects Receive Grants by Benno Groeneveld - Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal (MN)

The OEA grants, each worth about $65,000, will support efforts by the University of Minnesota to use electricity generated by solar panels to make hydrogen from water. The hydrogen will be stored and used as fuel for equipment powered by fuel cells.

5/8/2003   Lieberman: End Foreign-oil Dependence by Nedra Pickler - AP/Seattle Times (WA)/Los Angeles Times (CA)

Much of Lieberman's plan is sure to be embraced by environmentalists — except for his call for fuel derived from coal. He would spend $15 billion to develop processes that turn coal into hydrogen, then dispose of the carbon-dioxide byproduct deep underground. Many environmentalists say coal mining creates an environmental problem by destroying the land and polluting the water. And they say burying carbon dioxide is an untested technique with no guarantees that it won't be released over time. Lieberman argues that the United States is sitting on a 200-year supply of coal and that the industry is developing more environmentally friendly methods to turn it into power. "We are literally sitting on the energy we need to be energy-independent," he said. ...Lieberman's plan includes several other components, including tax credits for those who buy cars and trucks with more fuel-efficient technology and a $6.5 billion investment in fuel-cell research — more than five times what the Bush administration is spending.

5/8/2003   Stewartry Man Helps Pioneer Clean Vehicle Fuel Stations - Inside Scotland (UK)

A former Stewartry man has taken a key role in a world first in the field of clean renewable energy. James Thom, who is an ex-pupil of Dalry Secondary School, has built the world’s first clean renewable energy filling station which was officially opened in Reykjavik in Iceland on April 24. Mr Thom, whose mother stays in Mossdale, is a senior engineer employed by Icelandic company Norsk Hydro and was in charge of building the station, which caters for vehicles, mainly buses, powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

5/8/2003   Dow, General Motors Team for Landmark Fuel Cell Partnership - GreenBiz.com

Dow Chemical, the world’s largest chemical manufacturer, and General Motors, the world’s largest automobile manufacturer, have reached initial understanding on the world’s largest fuel cell transaction to date. The intent of this is for GM to commercialize its hydrogen fuel cell technology to generate electricity from hydrogen created as a co-product at Dow’s operations in Freeport, Texas. The 30-square-mile complex in Freeport, 65 miles east of Houston, is Dow’s largest manufacturing facility. If tests proceed according to plan, Dow could eventually use up to 35 megawatts of power generated by 500 GM fuel cell units on an ongoing basis. This is enough electricity to power 25,000 homes for a year and is more than 15 times bigger than any other known fuel cell transaction. The test is expected to begin during the fourth quarter of 2003 and to run through 2005, with plans to commercialize starting in 2006.

5/7/2003   Congress Tests Drives Fuel Cell Vehicles by Dee-Ann Durban - Fox 12 (OR)/AP

General Motors Corp. delivered six fuel cell vehicles to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for lawmakers and others to test drive during the next two years. GM Chairman Rick Wagoner said the vehicles will increase lawmakers' understanding of fuel cell technology as automakers move steadily toward replacing the internal combustion engine. "We can do a lot to bring this technology to the market, but obviously it's going to be a team sport," Wagoner said. "We need policy-makers to see where we can go with this." The six HydroGen3 prototype vehicles cost about $1 million each, GM officials said. They are based on the Opel Zafira minivan but powered by fuel cells, which convert hydrogen into electricity. Water is the only thing emitted from the tailpipe. The HydroGen3 can travel about 290 miles before it needs more hydrogen, GM technicians said. Shell Hydrogen has promised to provide two hydrogen refueling pumps by October as part of the project.

5/6/2003   UK Flagging in Fuel Cell Race - BBC (UK)

Despite helping to pioneer the modern fuel cell, the UK is losing ground in its development compared with other countries, a survey says. ...There is only one fully functioning commercial fuel cell in the UK - providing power at a swimming pool in Woking. This, however, had to be sourced from the US because no UK company could supply it. Research funding available to UK groups is dwarfed by more than a billion dollars pledged for the development of cleaner hydrogen vehicles by President George W Bush this year. This is despite the fact that it was British scientists who developed the idea that energy could be extracted by combining hydrogen and oxygen.

5/5/2003   Big Oil Latches Onto Hydrogen Plan by Dave Zweifel - Capitol Times (Wisconsin)

As soon as hydrogen started gaining momentum, the oil companies rushed to buy up interests in technology companies developing ways to refine and store the new fuel. And the administration has seen to it that they have a good seat at the table in developing the president's new "pollution-free" car. They've been good campaign contributors, after all. So, as Nicklas pointed out to Lynn, even if the rest of the world switches to hydrogen manufactured from water, Americans may end up dependent on fossil fuels for generations.

5/5/2003   New Mexico Bets on Hydrogen Future by Andrew Webb - New Mexico Business Weekly

New Mexico boasts a small group of companies either fully or tangentially involved in the production of fuel cell components and related technology, including MesoFuel, Superior Micropowders and Surfect in Albuquerque, as well as Los Alamos' Energy Related Devices. They were joined at last week's workshop by representatives from large national and international corporations working to develop hydrogen fuel cell products, including as General Motors, Motorola and UTC Fuel Cells, a Connecticut supplier of hydrogen fuel cells for stationary power and the space program. Citing the state investment council's recent authorization to invest state funds directly into companies, Homans says he envisions existing firms, new companies, and fuel cell research from the labs coalescing to create a hydrogen economy cluster that could attract even more companies to the state to help commercialize the technology.

5/3/2003   Montana Would Welcome Hydrogen Power Plant - Helena Independent Record (Montana)

''We want every consortium that comes forward to know that we (the Montana Department of Commerce) support this technology. Montana has all the resources needed for fuel cell technology,'' said Tod Kasten, a department employee and an organizer of Montanans for Responsible Energy Development. ...The FutureGen project goal is to take technology development that would normally take 20 years and cut that about in half, Miller said. There is intense pressure within government to get research that can promote the ''hydrogen economy'' very swiftly through cooperation with private industry, so the technology can be available on the market in 10 to 15 years.

5/2/2002   New Mexico Bets on Hydrogen Future by Andrew Webb - New Mexico Business Weekly  

"New Mexico has many of the assets needed," says Kenneth Freese, a program manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory's industrial business development department. Freese is on loan to the Economic Development Department to coordinate the Hydrogen Technology Partnership, or HyTeP project, a group of about 10 industry and political leaders charged with working with the state at large to grow a fuel cell cluster. "We have research, we have hydrogen, we have an unusual constellation of bipartisan political support that is bringing together the private and public sector to identify where the opportunities lie. "We're talking about 10 to 15 years before this is a fully developed industry. That means we have time to put in place the business infrastructure before it's needed." Freese says New Mexico's natural resources -- abundant natural gas and sun -- are its key assets in the race to become what the economic development department calls the "hydrogen state." Among several current methods of deriving hydrogen, about half of it is produced by reforming it from natural gas. Freese says scientists believe future methods will include cracking water molecules with electricity to obtain hydrogen -- a task that could be performed with solar power.

5/2/2003   Actor Dennis Weaver Promotes Alt-fuel Cars on National Tour - San Diego Online (California)

Actor Dennis Weaver and a caravan of alternate-fuel vehicles stopped at Fresno City Hall on Thursday, as part of a cross-country trip to advocate higher federal mileage standards and conversions to hydrogen-powered engines. ..."We are in a tremendous transition now," he said, describing a move away from the internal combustion engine. "The energy we choose to fuel our economy is the No. 1 issue now."

5/2/2003   Fuel Economy Hits 22-Year Low by Danny Hakim - New York Times

In his first speech today as the new chairman of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, who will continue to serve as chief executive, said "the only solution to this tough dilemma of improving fuel economy and reducing emissions in the intensely price-competitive and very low-cost-energy environment here in the U.S. is through technology." He singled out the potential of hydrogen-powered fuel cells, a clean energy source, which have been a favorite technology of the Bush administration. But many analysts say fuel-cell cars are years, if not decades, away from mass production.

5/2/2003   Flight Path for Fuel Cells - E4 Engineering (UK)

Although question marks remain over the likelihood of hydrogen-powered cars becoming a reality, fuel cells could be the answer to reducing pollution from aircraft, said Peter McCallum, deputy head of NASA's propulsion and power projects. 'We think that fuel cells offer the greater long-term benefit if they can be made to work because they have a higher inherent thermal efficiency than conventional aircraft engines,' he said.

5/2/2003   FuelCell Energy of Torrington, Conn., Cuts 25 Percent of Jobs to Save Money by David A. Smith - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News/Comtex

Until Wednesday, FuelCell employed about 425 people -- 200 at its manufacturing plant in Torrington and 225 in Danbury where it is headquartered. On Wednesday, the company laid off between 45 and 50 people in a variety of positions at each location, spokesman Bill Baker said. ...Despite several consecutive quarterly losses, FuelCell has ramped up employment at its Torrington facility over the past few years, adding 60 jobs last year alone. Although FuelCell has run successful field trials and could make products for the open market if the demand were there, it has yet to sell a truly commercial fuel cell unit. Baker says Wednesday's layoffs have more to do with the general economy than difficulties in the fuel cell industry.