H Power Corp. (Clifton, NJ) announced the extension of its Energy Co-Opportunity (ECO) beta testing program. Both H Power and ECO agree that by extending the beta tests, H Power will be able to accumulate additional reliability runtime from its units in the field, and make further progress in reducing system costs. It is anticipated that commercial shipments to ECO and other customers are likely to commence in 2002 after the completion of the extended beta testing program.
H. Frank Gibbard, CEO of H Power, stated, "We will be using this extended time to ensure that our residential cogeneration fuel cell systems meet the demands of our key customers. We are currently running tests internally with ECO and other customers that are providing us with extremely valuable data. These data will enable us to reach the next step of our beta unit testing, which is extended cumulative runtime. The recent appointment of Dudley Wass, formerly of Visteon Corporation, as our Chief Operating Officer substantially strengthens our manufacturing operations. With the planned July 20 opening of our North Carolina manufacturing facility, we are looking forward to the completion of the next step of our beta unit testing program."
