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Impacts of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and Investment Tax Credit on the North American Fuel Cell Backup Power and Material Handling Equipment Industries
David L. Greene, Girish Upreti, December 15, 2015
Executive Summary
Since a previous study of the North American non-automotive fuel cell industry by Greene et al. in 2011, the industry has achieved major cost reductions while at the same time improving the durability and reliability of its products. This report estimates the impact of government subsidies provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) on the sales of fuel cell Backup Power (BuP) and Material Handling Equipment (MHE) by North American firms. The additional impact of those policies and their effects on the outlook for the industry in the future are estimated using an updated version of a model of the non-automotive fuel cell market in North America (Greene et al., 2011; Upreti et al., 2012). North American firms have been producing fuel cell BuP and MHE systems for demonstration and commercial sales for about a decade. Fuel cell technologies typically compete with battery and diesel generator systems in the BuP market, and battery-powered forklifts in indoor, warehousing MHE applications where emission-free operation is a priority.
