Rolls-Royce Fuel Cell Systems
Receives Third Frontier Grant – Rolls-Royce Fuel Cell Systems, located
in North Canton, Ohio (Stark County), was awarded a $600,000
Third Frontier Grant from the State of Ohio. The award was
granted for further development of its Internal Steam Reformer
which is a critical component of its 1MW Solid Oxide Fuel
Cell Electric Power System project. The current steam reformer
was developed by Rolls-Royce in the United Kingdom and has
demonstrated baseline performance requirements. Rolls-Royce
will transfer the current internal steam reformer technology
to Ohio to improve performance and reduce cost of this critical
component. The project will establish a new performance baseline
using a catalyst manufactured by BASF that offers a 50% cost
reduction. The Ohio State University will be collaborating
with Rolls-Royce on catalyst performance analysis. Rolls-Royce,
a world leading provider of power systems and services for
use on land, at sea, and in the air, established the North
American headquarters for its fuel cell subsidiary in North
Canton in 2006. They are housed in the Fuel Cell Prototyping
Center located on the campus of Stark State College of Technology.
To read about the awarding of this grant and other fuel cell
grants, click
here.
Groundbreaking Takes Place for New Federal Building
in Canton – The
U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) held a groundbreaking
ceremony on the site of the new Federal office building complex
to be built in downtown Canton, Ohio. The complex will have
two buildings totaling 45,000 square feet with construction
to start in February. The new facility complex will cost
about $14 million and will replace the 76 year old Frank
T. Bow Federal building, a block east of the new site. Fedcar
Co., a subsidiary of Carnegie Development and Management
Corp in Westlake, Ohio is the developer for the project.
The developer will be leasing the land from the city and
the GSA will be leasing the buildings from the developer.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court, U.S. Trustee Program, U.S. Marshall
Service, Social Security Administration, and the Internal
Revenue Service will occupy the complex. Retiring Congressman
Ralph Regula was credited with conceiving the idea of a new
Federal building and efforts to name the complex after Congressman
Regula have begun. To read more about the project, click
here.
Stark Development Board Releases Services Marketing
Plan – The
Stark Development Board (SDB), a private, non-profit corporation
engaged in economic development activities in Stark County,
recently released its Services Marketing Plan. The Services
Marketing Plan is a result of the service sector study conducted
by SDB this past year. The study was initiated due to the
growth of service sector employment over the last decade.
A logic model that SDB followed established guideline for
evaluating which service sectors should be pursued in the
marketing plan. SDB staff also conducted a competitive analysis
of 25 metropolitan areas that Stark County typically competes
against on leads from companies looking for new business
locations. As part of the study, SDB gathered information
on predicted occupation growth by state and analyzed location
quotients for counties in the region. SDB determined that
the healthcare and finance and insurance sectors should be
targeted in the marketing plan. Services are closely aligned
with manufacturing in Stark County, and clusters such as
fuel cells and metal fabrication will continue to be important
to our community. SDB presented the Services Marketing Plan
at the quarterly SDB Trustees’ Meeting in December.
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news.
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