RE: Fred!!!11 Apr 2020 20:13
2020 is now expected to be the year in which several of these commercial enquiries are transitioned into contracts for delivery of fuel cell systems into the market and whilst we continue to maintain an interest and capability in deploying systems into the larger petrochemical and industrial markets where hydrogen is a by-product, our ability to achieve short term successful deployment into the distributed power and EV charging markets, together with a first mover advantage, makes for an exciting and opportunistic year ahead.
The Market Landscape
It was a pleasure in January 2020 to represent AFC Energy in Versailles, at the Hydrogen Council's annual meeting of over 80 CEOs and senior executives. Coined "the Decade of Hydrogen" and having such a high calibre of executives and decision makers around the table made it clear to me and all who attended that today is the seminal moment in the future of Hydrogen within the global energy industry.
Public knowledge and acceptance of hydrogen technologies is growing year on year, particularly in the growth markets of China and Europe, and with cost projections of hydrogen based solutions expected to halve over the next decade through scale up in production, distribution and manufacturing, the commercial opportunities for fuel cells has never been greater.
At home in the United Kingdom, AFC Energy's key markets, EV Charging and Distributed Off Grid Power Generation, are also growing at a rapid rate with several Government policy developments aligned and supportive of our deployment strategy. In February 2020, the Prime Minister announced an acceleration of the date for the displacement of all new petrol and diesel cars to 2035; based on our enquiries to date, we know this is going to create new and accelerated interest in our off grid EV charging solution, particularly across Local Councils, fleets and car park operators.
The transition of AFC Energy's target market focus over the past twelve to twenty-four months towards premium priced power solutions continues to be validated and we remain optimistic that short term deployment potential will remain the focus of our Company into 2020.
Electric Vehicle Charging - A Growth Market
We are often asked whether AFC Energy is for or against the introduction of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles due to its own focus on battery electric vehicles. We believe both technologies have a role to play in the aspiration of decarbonising transport, however, it is clear based on the growth in EVs in the UK and elsewhere that we see in the market today, that EVs are not simply a transitionary technology, but will be part of the longer term transportation network for many decades to come. This does however create challenges.
In the UK Government's recent Electric Vehicles Energy Taskforce (January 2020), the Taskforce stressed the likely challenges EVs will place on the electricity distribution netwo