If there is one drawback to the current drone technology is its battery life, which for the most part is pretty short meaning that if you wanted to capture a lot of footage, you’d better have a ton of spare batteries available or be prepared to continuously charge the drone. However that could soon change thanks to hydrogen fuel cell technology.A company by the name of Intelligent Energy has recently announced that come CES 2016, they plan on showing off their hydrogen fuel cell powered range extender for drones. Basically this is like an added battery pack for drones that uses hydrogen fuel cells and according to the company, it should extend the use of drones by hours, which is actually pretty impressive if it does what it advertises.
The use of hydrogen fuel cells, according to the company, will also allow it to recharge a lot faster than regular batteries from 1-2 hours to mere minutes. According to Julian Hughes, Group Business Development Director and Acting Managing Director for Intelligent Energy’s Consumer Electronics Division, “A longer flight time coupled with a quick re-fuel opens a wide range of new commercial possibilities for businesses such as drones for inspection of offshore platforms, search and rescue, high quality aerial photography, precision agriculture and parcel delivery and more.”
Unfortunately details regarding pricing and availability of the extender has not been shared as it is currently a prototype, but perhaps we will learn more at CES 2016 so do check back with us next month for more information.