Brunnthal, Germany--Following a successful tender of the U.S. Air Force SFC's U.S. partner Capital Connections LLC was awarded a follow-up contract in September 2007 regarding delivery of 521 Power Managers worth approx. 1.5 million USD. Immediately after contract award, a protest was filed against the award decision by a competing US company, resulting in a stop of work order. Now, SFC has been able to prove the rightfulness of the tender award jointly with the American business partner and legal counsel engaged in this matter. The order has now been released again and production work has started.

Due to the delay resulting from clarification of this protest, SFC today assumes that the substantial part of the order will be delivered in the first half of 2008. Under the existing contract the assembly of the final products will be handled by Capitol Connections LLC in the US.

The SFC Power Manager enables efficient battery charging in the field by harvesting and efficiently managing energy from virtually any energy source to provide electrical power during operation of host equipment. It is an important part of SFC’s fuel cell based energy solution consisting of SFC’s Portable Fuel Cell System, SFC Power Manager and hybrid battery. Through the SFC Power Manager the portable fuel cell can power virtually all electri-cal equipment carried by the soldier. As a result, the weight of batteries for the electrical equipment is signifi-cantly reduced.

The SFC Power Manager was developed in close cooperation with the U.S. Air Force. It will go through all rigorous U.S. Air Force operational tests under real field conditions to demonstrate the technical maturity that is neces-sary to meet the energy requirements of Airmen on the ground. 

“The U.S. Air Force order for the SFC Power Manager is another major milestone for SFC that paves the way for fully fielded use of our fuel cells in defense applications”, says Dr. Peter Podesser, CEO of SFC.  “We are extremely proud that SFC once again is the world’s first fuel cell company to win a major commercial order to supply a military organization, especially such a prestigious one as the U.S. Air Force.”

SFC’s fuel cell based energy solution is currently being field tested by several other military organizations in Europe and the United States. In theses tests it has been shown to successfully reduce a soldier’s load by over 80 percent.

SFC reiterates its guidance to achieve a triple digit growth rate in the current fiscal year. In the first nine months of 2007 the company has already increased its sales, compared to the previous year, by more than 130 per cent to 9.6 million Euros.

About SFC Smart Fuel Cell
SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG (www.sfc.com) is market leader in fuel cell technologies for mobile and off-grid power applications serving the leisure, industrial and defense markets.  As one of Germany’s technology pioneers, SFC has won numerous innovation awards.  In a U.S. Navy Assessment in 2005, SFC was awarded the highest score for technical maturity of all fuel cell products. SFC has coopera-tion agreements with the German Bundeswehr, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force and other leading military organizations.  Unlike most other fuel cell manufacturers, who are in the research and development phase or run subsidized demonstration projects, SFC has shipped fully commercial products to industrial and private end users for four years, and has created a convenient fuel cartridge supply infrastructure. SFC is DIN ISO 9001:2000 certified.