Ballard Power plans to scale production, reduce costs of next-gen bipolar plates

Ballard Power Systems announced its plan to materially reduce the costs and scale production capacity of next generation, proprietary graphite bipolar plates, including the introduction of disruptive manufacturing technology. This project is the logical progression after Ballard completed two important milestones – the development of next generation, thin flexible graphite bipolar plates, and an expansion of membrane electrode assembly manufacturing capacity in Canada as part of Ballard’s “3 by 3” stack cost reduction program. Bipolar plates are the next largest cost item in a fuel cell stack after MEAs, and Ballard expects the implementation of this project, including next generation plate manufacturing processes and the introduction of new lower cost material suppliers, to result in cost savings of up to 70%, following commissioning expected in late 2025. Beyond product cost savings, the project will increase Ballard’s plate manufacturing capacity by approximately 10 times while significantly improving graphite and resin material yield and reducing production takt times. Ballard has also developed several novel manufacturing processes that enable full automation of the bipolar plate production processes, resulting in substantially improved quality throughput, reduced energy demand, and the elimination of water consumption from plate manufacturing. These innovations are expected to be replicable in any future expansion of Ballard’s global bipolar plate production footprint. Ballard expects to invest approximately $18M in bipolar plate manufacturing from 2023 through 2025. Expected spending for this project in 2023 was included in Ballard’s capital allocation plan for the period, and does not change guidance on planned capital expenditure for 2023.