Tango begone (someday)! George Clooney moves into fuel cells
While George Clooney is best known on these pages at a Tango electric car driver (what, is there some other reason he's famous?), Ecorazzi recently mentioned a move that Mr. Clooney is making that may help develop a fuel cell for automobiles. This sentence over at Cultures and Traditions caught the Ecorazzi's eye: "Plus, as part of his [Clooney's] contract with Omega watches, he's working with them on the development of a fuel cell, not to mention presenting himself as the pin-up boy for eco-friendly electric cars."
Huh, a watch company making fuel cells? Yeah, that's what Ecorazzi's Michael wondered, too. So he dug around and found that Swatch (which owns Omega) has been trying to develop "an ultra-efficient and cheap fuel cell engine." Omega won't make the whole car for this fuel cell, just try to sell the powerplant component to automakers. With George Clooney as a salesman/spokesman, there's a good chance buyers will listen - as long as the thing works and isn't absurdly expensive.
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[Source: Cultures and Traditions via Ecorazzi]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris M 12:40AM (10/24/2007)
Ultra-efficient? Cheap? Fuel Cell? One of those, yes. Two, maybe. But all three? I don't think so. I think it highly unlikely that a small watchmaker could achieve the kind of breakthrough that has eluded all of the biggest automakers.
But even if they manage to make a highly efficient and dirt cheap fuel cell, they would still be stuck with the troublesome and expensive issue of H2 storage, unless their fuel cell runs on cheap readily available liquid fuel.
George Clooney is there to provide some celebrity star power to Omega/Swatch. I doubt he will do any research, or make many decisions for that company.
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GreyFlcn 2:34AM (10/24/2007)
More likely see Clooney behind the wheel of a Tesla before he's driving his own personal fuel cell car.
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Domenick 5:03AM (10/24/2007)
I remember when I was excited about fuel cells. In 1990.
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