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32 ConneCTiCuT Green Guide • Fall 2014 www.CTGreenGuide.com Opinion ediTorial ClearEdge Saga Nearing Sad Conclusion A tumultuous two years at the former UTC Power in South Windsor took an- other melancholy step toward an ending in July when a Korean conglomerate agreed to buy the remaining assets of the fuel cell manufacturer for $32 million. It is clear now that ClearEdge Power bit off more than it could chew when it acquired the firm in Febru- ary 2013 from Hartford conglomerate United Technologies Corp., thinking it would become the major player in the fuel cell industry. In reality, UTC probably was glad to be rid of its fuel cell division — even taking $227 million in charges to unload it — as no fuel cell company has ever turned a profit. In what now looks like a sly move, UTC got ClearEdge to take over the operations and assets while UTC kept the patents, which it later sold for $17 million to Canadian fuel cell maker Ballard Power Systems. While it is easy to use this tale to cast dispersions on the entire, strug- gling industry, we view it as the folly of a company clearly in over its head. ClearEdge's plan sounded good back in 2013. It wanted to marry its legacy residential fuel cell with the commercial ones produced by the renamed UTC Power in order to cov- er the major aspects of the market. ClearEdge CEO David Wright had even convinced himself that using this plan would lead to the company turning a profit in a year or two. It was a welcome goal in an industry often plagued by focusing too much on getting the science perfect and not enough on making money. Somewhere along the way, it all went wrong. Our guess is ClearEdge's financial backer — Kohl- berg & Co. — suddenly realized the company was never going to turn it around and didn't want to waste any more money on a losing propo- sition. All we know for sure is one day all the employees are working in South Windsor, and the next day they are told the company is going bankrupt and gone for good. The $32 million acquisition by Korean firm Doosan will do little to raise the hopes of former ClearEdge workers, as the money will pay down creditors. The acquisition could lead to the reopening of the South Wind- sor facility, but that idea is more hope than reality at this point. From supplying fuel cells for the first Moon landing to installing power systems at the new World Trade Center in New York City to the ClearEdge acquisition to the Ko- rean takeover, UTC Power had quite the journey through the decades. Although it's not quite over — an employee lawsuit is pending — the coming conclusion is the wrong way to end the ride. ClearEdge Power workers were told abruptly at the end of April they no longer had jobs. The company's South Windsor facilities — once site of dreamy expansion plans — remain vacant and sullen. PhoTo | hBJ File