Ballard Power plans to end JV with Japan's Ebara

(Reuters) - Canadian fuel-cell maker Ballard Power Systems Inc plans to dissolve its joint venture with Ebara Corp that was focused on systems development for the Japanese residential cogeneration market.

"As we've said in the past, we see residential cogeneration on a longer timeline to commercialization," Ballard's chief executive, John Sheridan, said in a statement on Sunday.

"This, combined with an increasing investment requirement for continued system development work, has impacted the business case for this program," Sheridan said.

Ballard does not expect a material impact from the decision to dissolve the joint venture -- Ebara Ballard Corp -- on its current year financial outlook, given the low growth projected for this market in 2009.

(Reporting by Sweta Singh in Bangalore; Editing by Himani Sarkar)