Ceres and DEK energised by $1.18m

Ceres Power, a developer of fuel cell technology, and DEK, a provider of screen printing equipment, have been awarded £700,000 ($1.18m) from the UK’s innovation agency Technology Strategy Board (TSB). The money is awarded as part of TSB’s Fuel Cell Manufacturing and Supply Chain collaboration initiative.

The money will co-fund the collaboration worth a total of £1.1m ($1.85m). The two companies are aiming to combine DEK’s high-speed photovoltaic manufacturing with Ceres Power’s low cost fuel cell technology, dubbed Steel Cell. Ultimately, the new partners want to make the mass production of fuel cell technology affordable and gain a high a market penetration.

Ceres Power only recently announced its plan to raise £20m ($34m) through an oversubscribed placing. As of August 6^th, 2014, the company is trading on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market at a market cap of £46.28m ($77.88m).

DEK Solar meanwhile has been acquired by ASMPT in July 2014, and is now known as ASM Assembly Solutions. For now, the DEK brand remains, however.

Phil Caldwell, CEO at Ceres Power, said: “We are very pleased to be working with global industry leader DEK to scale up our manufacturing capabilities in response to the growing commercial demand for this technology. This award is further validation of our unique Steel Cell technology, which can be mass manufactured using conventional materials and established processes from the PV industry and provides the step change in cost that fuel cells need for widespread adoption.”