The company, which confirmed Sheridan as CEO after a fourth-month interim term, reported Wednesday narrower losses in the fourth quarter despite falling revenue and pledged to meet specific technological and financial targets in the coming year.

"I do see an opportunity on the horizon for a potential turning point for the fuel cell sector, and I really believe that Ballard came make a significant contribution to making that happen - if we deliver," Sheridan said Thursday inn a conference call with analysts.

To underscore the company's pledge, Sheridan said its performance in the coming year will be held against a yardstick of production and financial targets.

Ballard reported a loss of $16.1 million US or 14 cents a share for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of $55.1 million or 46 cents a share in the year-ago period as revenues fell to $17.7 million from $20.5 million.

The Vancouver-based company decreased its loss mainly through reduced operating expenses, lower depreciation and amortization and higher investment and other income.

For the full year, Ballard more than halved its loss to $87 million on revenues of $53.7 million, compared with a loss of $175.4 million on revenue of $81.4 million for 2004. Operating cash consumption was $83.3 million, beating management's guidance of $85 to $100 million.

"It was an important year for Ballard," said Sheridan, the former chairman who stepped in as temporary CEO last October when Dennis Campbell was ousted by the company's board.

"We solidified our strategy to build a commercial fuel cell business and we reposition the company to ensure that we can execute that strategy."

Now, it needs to push harder to produce and promote the technology that has been championed as a leading challenge to environmentally unfriendly gas-guzzling cars and smoke-belching power plants.

So far, fuel cells and other new power sources have failed to crack fossil fuels' stranglehold on the marketplace, disappointing investors and environmentalists alike.

"Ballard, like a lot of technology companies, has had a reputation in the past of under-delivering, relative to expectations - we're changing that, " Sheridan said.

"At times in the past we also tried to push technology without enough focus on the customer - we're changing that."

To make fuel cells a commercial reality the company will need "tenacious execution and being obsessed with delivery, doing what we say we're going to do," the former Bell Canada president added.

Among its targets for 2006:

-Revenues of between $55 and $65 million.

-Operating cash consumption between $50 million and $65 million.
 
-Ship or book 280 Mark 1030 fuel cells.

-Deliver prototype of next-generation fuel cells for field demonstration.

-Ship or book 300 Mark9 SSL fuel cells.

-Achieve a 195-second starting time at -30 C for its auto fuel cell.

-Deliver a next-generation automotive fuel cell prototype.

Ballard shares fell a penny to $6.84 in afternoon trading Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.