Inside Look at IdaTech's Worldwide Reach

"About half of the world's population, billions of people, have no power at all," IdaTech's CEO Harol Koyama said recently.

That's a powerful number IdaTech hopes to change with its fuel cell technology. But for years, getting reliable power generators efficiently and cleanly -- beyond the grid -- has hit a roadblock.

"This (hydrogen tank) has been the main impediment to large-scale adoption of fuel cells," Koyama said.

Heavy hydrogen tanks crippled fuel cell systems' potential growth.

So IdaTech figured out a way to make their own hydrogen -- by combining water and methanol, which is similar to windshield wiper fluid.

"We take that liquid and run it through this little gray box, and this makes all the hydrogen," Koyama explained. "On demand, only as it's needed, so we don't have to store a bunch of hydrogen onsite."

Which means IdaTech's fuel cell systems are in demand all over the world, in remote locations from Africa to Australia.

"This is a shot of our systems in Indonesia," Koyama said, pointing to a photo. "Each one of these little bubbles is one of our systems, sitting out in the middle of nowhere by itself, in the jungle."

From the jungle to the highway, fuel cell technology is just revving up. IdaTech is not a household name yet, but some heavyweight companies are vying to make hydrogen powered systems part of our everyday lives.

"All this technology, particularly the fuel cell technology, is the same technology that GM and Honda, and the other auto makers are racing to put into automobiles," Koyama said.

When NewsChannel 21 asked IdaTech's CEO and president "Why Bend, Oregon?" Koyama said there's really no reason -- the company was started here 14 years ago, and it took off.

In a state where 'green' is always in, IdaTech has the golden ticket.

"It fits with a lot of the other green technologies that are emerging in Oregon," Koyama said.

Source: Mackenzie Wilson, KTVZ.COM