Managing director of UPS Systems, Tom Sperrey, has forecast significant commercial growth for the UK fuel cell industry.

While countries like Germany, Japan and America have embraced fuel cell technology, the UK has until now lagged behind with high capital costs serving as a major barrier to widespread adoption of fuel cell technology.

However, Tom Sperrey believes the UK fuel cell landscape is to change in the next 12 months as costs fall with new products entering the market.

He said: '2010 is bringing with it a new wave of fuel cell activity. Already new products are launching into the market and companies continue to show interest in learning more about fuel cells and adopting clean technology. We are currently discussing fuel cell system roll-outs with several major corporates and NGOs.'

He continued: 'Under a grant from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) we are part of a consortium working to develop new technologies that reduce the use of expensive materials in fuel cells. As these developments are rolled out commercially, we expect capital costs to fall and make the technology financially attainable for more businesses.'

Growth hotspots at present are traffic signalling, remote monitoring and security, using smaller hydrogen and methanol fuel cells with power ranges of 25-150Watts for prime power and up to 15kilowatts for standby power.