Feed In Tariff Review

As the eurozone crisis hurtles inexorably towards the precipice it is not entirely surprising that one or two observers question our misguided investments in eco snake oil.  Against the background of Germany waking up to the fact they have been well and truly stitched up by the PV lobby, it should come as little surprise that they have decided to pull the plug on the industrial subsidy junkie.  Not precipitously, but as the PV industry has for so long been banging on about “grid parity”, then their hand is being called and the FIT will be phased out by 2017.

It may come as a bit of a shock when they realise that it is not grid parity they will achieve, but tariff parity, so that PV generation will still find itself unable to compete without subsidy in the energy market.

The controversy around the reduction in the UK FIT for PV towards the end of last year continues, with Friends of the Earth scoring a pyrrhic legal victory for common nonsense.  The 43p/kWh rate will remain until at least 3^rd March so we can expect another brief gold rush over the next few weeks, but this is merely delaying the inevitable.  Perhaps that is all they were hoping to achieve, in which case it was all a lot of fuss about nothing.  I was somewhat amused to hear an interview with the owner of one PV installation company claiming that it was not the reduction in FIT they objected to, but the timing.  She claimed that they, along with the PV industry, had been arguing for a reduced FIT for some time!

“Please stop paying us so much for PV generation.  We really don’t want it.  We know it will all end in tears.”

Do you recall anyone in the PV industry saying that?  I thought not; they were all up to their snouts in swill at the time anyway.

However, it does rather raise some doubts as to whether FIT and similar subsidies may not so much drive down PV prices, but quite the contrary as PV prices become inflated to exploit every last penny of the subsidy.  For, no sooner does the obscene 43p appear to be back on the table than adverts appear exhorting us to get back in the trough until 3^rd March.  By the time you read this it may have changed, but on the day the announcement was made, alongside adverts which had been in place since the earlier announcement of the reduced FIT offering 3.8kW systems at £7000, new adverts appeared offering exactly the same systems for considerably more, justified by the higher FIT!

Indeed, a survey of PV systems across Europe reveals a worrying trend of PV prices directly related to whatever FIT is in place and PV manufacturers hopping from one market to the next like a plague of locusts sucking the lifeblood from the gullible taxpayers.

Greg Barker was quite right to denounce the excessive PV subsidy which was draining all the resources from low carbon electricity to one sub-optimal technology as “barmy”.  Unfortunately, as a politician at the mercy of the vagaries of ill-informed public opinion he was forced into a rational, albeit barely credible argument about spreading the same money thinner to encourage even larger numbers of PV installations.

What he should have had the courage to say, is what his counterparts in Germany are now saying:

"From the standpoint of the climate, every solar system is a bad investment"

He is quite right that we have limited resources.  The Germans are right that we should make the best use of those limited resources.  Lets hope that the FIT review does its job properly and concludes that if climate change is the problem then each technology should be rewarded on its potential contribution to carbon mitigation rather than how stupidly expensive it is.

Not only does micro CHP keep you warm in winter, generate enough electricity to meet all a households needs when it is dark, in winter and when there is no wind, it also has the lowest cost per tonne of carbon displaced from central generating plant.  To me, that means it currently represents the best use of resources for a low carbon domestic heat sector.  Maybe if there is something left in the trough after the PV piggies have had their fill…?

For an analysis of the carbon mitigation potential of micro CHP, click here

For additional papers on micro CHP, including the relative carbon mitigation potential for various microgeneration technologies, click here

End of the line for solar gravy train?

If the collapse of the perceived value of solar PV stocks is anything to go by it would appear as Fraser would say that “we are all doomed”. Major Chinese c-Si (crystalline silicon, conventional) PV manufacturers Trina and JA Solar share prices fell 17% in two days on the NY stock exchange with demand for their commodity products dropping like a silicon ingot in free fall as European governments finally wake up to the realisation that they have been conned into pouring gazillions of tax payers money into probably the worst low carbon generation investment since Olkiluoto.

E.ON launches micro CHP...again!

Rumours circulating in the industry appear to have been confirmed by what must rate as the lowest of all low key product launches in the history of the energy industry.

Buried deep within the E.ON web site, an article has appeared inviting aspirant micro CHP owners to put their name on the waiting list for the long awaited WhisperGen 1kW micro CHP product. This may be the equivalent of building up a queue for the new iPAD, but I hardly see a micro CHP unit as a fashion accessory. However, if previous experience is anything to go by, you had better get your name down fast as there may not be many products available for a while.

Micro CHP solution to E.ON Group Strategy

What is it that the CEO of Europe’s leading integrated energy company knows that you don’t?

On Wednesday this week, energy giant E.ON announced its new group strategy. Along with their plans for expansion into new markets in Russia and North America, their CEO, Dr Johannes Teyssen made particular mention of their ambitions to be market leaders in the energy world, utilising the best available technologies. Whilst restating E.ON’s long held belief in the need to consider a diversified range of energy solutions, he singled out “micro CHP for single family homes” as a key differentiated product within E.ON’s technology portfolio. He even went so far as to say that the Virtual Power Plant, incorporating micro CHP, was the way forward.

“Our objective is to do a better job (as) an expert provider of energy solutions…innovative solutions like micro CHP units…and smart grids that have the ability to combine distributed generation units to form virtual power plants.”
It is probably fair to say that the CEO of an energy company with a €64 billion turnover does not take a fanciful approach to investments in energy technology. The fact that E.ON, seen by many as one of the old energy dinosaurs, exclusively promoting “big” energy solutions such as coal and nuclear has now endorsed micro CHP as a key component of their strategy should tell us something about the potential for this technology.

Clearly micro CHP is no longer a dim and distant aspiration; it is a technology whose time has come and now forms an integral component of at least one major energy player’s strategic generation portfolio.

So, if you want to understand why E.ON believes that micro CHP is the future, take a look at this book. A free preview is available, but you will need to buy it to get the full story. They say that if you think information is expensive…try ignorance.

For the full text of Dr Teyssens speech and press release, click here

For more information on E.ON's new strategic focus, click here

For more information on micro CHP, click here

For details of the conference including micro CHP Virtual Power Plant, click here

A fair deal for microgeneration?

The speculation around which measures will survive Osborne’s sword of Damocles continues unabated. At yesterday’s Solar Power Conference, a woeful figure from DECC was on the agenda to explain the government’s position on support for PV. He opened by saying he could not pre-empt the CSR by commenting in any way on the FIT and would not be drawn on the matter. At this point I suspect that many in the audience thought he might as well pack up and leave as he was obviously just going to waffle on without substance for the next half hour, which he did…almost.
He did make the point that, as a principle, DECC did not believe PV could make any relevant contribution to the UK 2020 renewables target, and that cost-effective carbon mitigation was not really the point. It was “all about engaging and empowering individuals to make their own investment decisions in Britain’s energy future” albeit at the expense of their neighbours. (It never ceases to amaze me at how gullible the public are when it comes to getting something for nothing or their avarice when they can expect to get something at someone else’s cost). What this does not explain is why the government would want to support large scale PV farms where the likely investors are big business.
This is further compounded by the cosy relationship between those substantial, credit worthy companies, the banks and the inner circle of career civil servants. Any banker will tell you (and on this point he will not be lying), that banks and other funding institutions require a rate of return on any investment proportional to its perceived risk. One element of risk is the “bankability” of their client. So if they fund a public sector project it is generally perceived as being low risk; similarly though to a lesser extent, big corporations such as the “big six” energy companies. Now the FIT has been explicitly designed to deliver an IRR of around 8%, deliberately too low to make it worthwhile for an individual to borrow the money at usurious bank rates to fund, for example, an economically “rent seeking” PV project. But they are the very people that government policy, as espoused by DECC, is supposed to embrace!
Initially the FIT was denounced by many as a tax on everyone to fund eco-bling toys for the rich, that is, those who have adequate resources to invest in PV without recourse to borrowing; if you have money in the bank, then 8% is a really good deal! As ever in such cases, the government responded by promising some gobbledegook PAYS (Pay As You Save) scheme which would enable us all to obtain loans securitised against FIT, RHI or whatever and social housing providers started jumping into bed with big business to deliver PV to their tenants. PAYS is generally considered a dead duck by those in the know, so that leaves the following worthy causes in line to profit from the FIT stealth tax:
• Public sector bodies with mandatory renewable or carbon targets which would otherwise need to funded by direct taxation
• Corporate investors
• Banks
Now you might conclude from all this that if the axe has to fall somewhere it should be on the large scale PV projects which achieve neither value for money energy policy goals, nor engage the consumer. Indeed, for a government which proclaims “fairness” as an axiom of their entire existence, that should be the case, but…
Another speaker at the conference made the case for maintaining investor confidence not only in renewables but in the forthcoming revolution in our energy infrastructure. The numbers were convincing. If, as Ernst and Young have estimated, the UK needs to invest around £200 billion in new generation and networks by 2025, then if the investors have even the slightest wobble of confidence in the ongoing gravy train, their perception of “risk” increases and they may consequently demand higher interest rates. Even another 1% would result in an extra burden of £2 billion annually, balanced against the current cost of the FIT estimated at a mere £50 million annually. So Osborne cannot ditch the cartel subsidy on big PV without “damaging investor confidence” and costing us all even more money!
If that isn’t blackmail I don’t know what is!

Micro CHP keeps FIT

So finally Osborne is about to confirm our worst nightmares and tell us just who will keep their funding and who will go to the wall. I am reliably informed (just how reliably remains to be seen on Wednesday) that the rumoured abandonment of the infamous FIT (Feed In Tariff) will not happen; not entirely surprising given the overwhelming lobbying effort of the piggies with their snouts in the trough of eco-obscenity...

The very notion that a government could review and possibly abandon a measure just six months into its precarious three year lifespan caused major ructions in the energy and investment industries alike. How could we ever hope to expect investment in any energy technology if the promises of a government were to be so lightly cast aside? Well, quite apart from the fact that we would be unutterably naive to believe anything any politician said from one day to the next, surely it is the prerogative of a democratically elected government (more or less) to modify/reverse the policies/promises of a previous administration. Why should they not decide to abandon the outrageously unfair, unjust, inequitable, pointless FIT?

Well, primarily because, in the midst of countless cost cutting exercises imposed by HM Treasury, the FIT, master of all stealth taxes, does not actually cost the Exchequer a single penny! It is an almost perfect construct, robbing us all (including the poor) to pay for the eco-bling excesses of the chattering rich, and making the energy companies (the de facto tax collectors) the bad guys! Energy bills go up (not taxes) to subsidise the most cost ineffective technologies in the vain hope that this might ultimately contribute to our 2020 targets. I am very reliably informed that £5 notes burn rather well and as a zero carbon fuel source...

But then Cameron made his silly announcement that he was going to lead the greenest government ever with about the same level of understanding of the issues as the last lot, so God help us! Government and energy policy by sound bite continues.

Feet of clay

There must be very few observers who derive the slightest pleasure from the BP oil spillage fiasco. Yet, for every cloud...there may well be a silver lining.

Not least because those who believe the discovery and exploitation of new oil resources is constrained simply by the price of oil and the related investment cost for a viable field may finally understand that there may be limits to man's ingenuity.

Perhaps more importantly though, the smug complacency of the oil giants and indeed the energy giants generally, may be brought into focus by this blatant revelation of the fallibility of those previously unchallengeable masters of the energy universe.

Only a couple of months ago Tony Hayward was on the BBC ridiculing the very notion of "peak oil", propounding his view that we would reach "peak demand" long before there was any problem with supply. Quite apart from his entirely (deliberately?) missing the point that oil is a finite resource and that therefore we must eventually arrive at "peak oil", the pathetic deference of the interviewer in the face of this guru of oil, was a potent illustration of the level of debate in the energy future. He simply assumed that an energy giant like BP must know what they were doing and likewise their CEO.

Whether or not BP have behaved in a recklessly irresponsible way in their Gulf activities is of less concern than the revelation that BP, together with all the oil companies, all the energy companies are fallible; they are not to be taken at their word and should be challenged. So when EdF tells us we should cut back on renewables because it might impair their nuclear programme or Gazprom tell us to stop wasting our time on renewables because they have plenty of gas left, we should challenge those views and the motivation behind them.

Maybe microgeneration is expensive, but its costs are clear and upfront; it is unlikely to cost billions in clean-up or decommissioning costs! So maybe the first micro CHP products such as the Baxi Ecogen are entering the market at over £6000 (incidentally less than half an equivalent PV system), it is highly unlikely that we will suddenly be presented with a £20 billion contingency cost if they fail to perform!

And, maybe we should stop listening to the energy giants and think for ourselves!

Sub-optimal microgeneration...including micro CHP

Microgeneration can make a significant contribution to the overall energy system, particularly as a complementary component supporting other energy sources. In the book on micro CHP the potential to optimise this interaction is discussed, pointing out the risk that ill-considered government interventions, well-meaning, but ill-advised, may result in very poorly optimised systems. As an example the FIT (Feed In Tariff) as a consequence of the quite extreme distortion of value to the microgenerator, may result in a decade of sub-optimal control of microgeneration systems.

More detailed discussion is provided in the book, but in summary the point is made that, if the FIT is set at a level significantly higher than the true value of electricity produced (which it clearly is with PV at 41.3p/kWh against a retail value of around 10p/kWh and an export value of 3p/kWh), there is no incentive for the generator to match generation to self consumption. Only when this distorting subsidy is modified will anyone make the least effort to increase self-utilisation of generation output; we all suffer as a consequence.


At Intersolar, the European solar jamboree, one company (IBC Solar) was planning to introduce to the German market in September (when the German FIT will be significantly reduced) a rather clever system which is intended to realign consumption to generation by enabling certain circuits/appliances only when the PV (or other microgeneration system including micro CHP) is generating, thus improving self-consumption of generated electricity and consequently economic value to the consumer. At a cost of around €750 it is not cheap, but at least it proves the point, that developers will come up with better designed systems, but only once the distortions of FIT are withdrawn or at least reduced.


Anyway, another good reason to buy the book on micro CHP if you really want to understand microgeneration!

Micro CHP book

I feel almost guilty not having contributed anything since January, particularly when there has been so much going on in the micro CHP world. I was quite tempted to make some comment on the FIT, so appropriately launched on 1st April 2010, but instead decided to spend my time doing something more productive.

So, here it is! At last, after what seems like an eternity I have finished the book on micro CHP. It has not been easy trying to write faster that things change, so in the end I gave up and drew a line under it. So, FIT is included in the book, but there may be references to LCBP so precipitously withdrawn only last week.

Interesting, though hardly surprising, that the programme which actually impacts the treasury (LCBP) gets pulled, but the FIT, which is a poorly concealed stealth tax which they can blame on the energy companies (who are charged with collecting the funding from customers' bills) carries on regardless.

The demise of Disenco, the launch of Baxi Ecogen (oft repeated) are both noted, but there are almost certainly things which will be wrong before you read the book. Feel free to comment and send updates. I can't promise to respond to all of them, but at least I will endeavour to incorporate them in the next edition.

You can read a few pages free of charge by clicking on the preview button.

Microgeneration has a FIT

Am I hallucinating …or did I have a fit?

A famous Japanese Buddhist monk once wrote, “If I cannot be sure that what I perceive when I am awake is real, then how can I be sure that my dreams are not?”

Perhaps it is an indication of the onset of old age, or too much after dinner cheese or possibly excessive late night drinking, but I appear to be fast losing my grip on reality. Was it just a dream, or a nightmare perhaps, that the UK government, not content with mortgaging our grandchildren’s future to bail out their fat acolytes in the City, is now determined to spend as much of our remaining money as possible to achieve as little as possible in the questionable quest for climate change nirvana?

Are they really intent upon their insane plan to introduce a FIT predicated on investing as much money as possible in the most worthless measures? And did I dream that the PV industry is whinging about only getting 35p/kWh and is lobbying against the inclusion of more worthwhile Microgeneration technologies such as micro CHP on the basis that, unlike PV, they might actually deliver significant carbon savings? Even with a proposed tariff of 15p/kWh, they fear that everybody will rush out and invest in micro CHP, and that would mean there would be less left in the trough for them.

Now, let me get this right. The government is planning not to support micro CHP because it appears to be the most cost-effective Microgeneration technology and might actually succeed in delivering significant carbon savings and would rather spend the money on PV because they know it won’t!

I dreamt the FIT would stimulate Microgeneration and deliver as much as 2% of our 2020 electricity targets and cost a mere £50 per household. It must have been a dream, because at that rate, 100% would cost us each £2,500 per year!

Never mind, all the governments of Europe are introducing the FiT on the same idiotic basis. So we shall end up with more PV in Germany than the whole of Southern Europe and will build our wind farms in the shelter of some forest or other. Now that must be dreaming!

Surely that is an isolated aberration, but no, I dreamt that the UK government had come up with the Baldrick of all cunning plans to make all our homes energy efficient and zero carbon by 2050. For over half a century successive governments have attempted with varying degrees of success to improve the UK housing stock. Maggie came up with a cunning wheeze to cut the cost of social housing provision and maintenance by selling it to someone else, so it became “someone else’s problem” and instantly ceased to exist. Gormless Gordon has devised an infinitely more brilliant scheme; he is passing responsibility to the energy suppliers not just for social housing, but for every home in the land! Now when it comes to building a power station, I would concede that the energy companies are bordering on competent, but even in my wildest dreams I cannot imagine they are much good at building houses. The Community Energy Saving Programme is just so incredible I must have dreamt it. First they work out a projected carbon saving for a range of energy efficiency measures, then they multiply each by some random number to give a “weighted” carbon saving. External Wall Insulation, for example, gets a multiplier of 3. Why? Because it is so expensive and no-one would do it based on the actual saving. The CESP then compounds this by giving an additional weighting to multiple measures applied to the same property. So, if you insulate a house and install a new condensing boiler, you will be deemed to save more carbon than if you installed the measures in different homes, when, according to the laws of nature, the opposite is true.

Again we incentivise the least cost-effective measures so the carbon savings are achieved at as high a cost as possible. Did I dream that?

Of course it also means that we will be deluding ourselves that for every tonne of carbon we are actually saving we think we are saving 6!

That’s probably why they say we are going to over-achieve our 2020 targets. Yes and whilst we are in this fantasy world we no longer need to be concerned about Climate Change. You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time…but you cannot fool nature. You cannot legislate the Laws of Physics; a former King of England tried that once before and look what it got him…wet feet. So whilst the dimwits who determine our benighted energy policy, or lack thereof, send King Canute to reverse the inexorable tide of climate change on the shores of Tuvalu, we sleep content, dreaming that it is all going to be alright.

But never fear, we will awaken from this nightmare to the fresh dawn of Dozy Dave and his opportunistic sound bite energy policy. I dreamt that he was going to bribe us with our own money (like that has never happened before!). I think it was something along the lines of giving each one of us £6500 of our own money to spend on energy efficiency measures for our homes. This is how it will work. Every home in the country will be entitled to this windfall, the cost of which will therefore be £6,500 multiplied by the number of households. So, first he collects the money (and if I dream correctly there will be no costs for administration, spillage or diversion of funds to other “worthwhile” causes), from “the taxpayer”, also known as the UK householder at an average cost of…um…let me see…oh, yes…£6,500. So, right hand, left hand…

But here is the clever bit! He won’t actually give it to you, it will be a loan, repayable from the income you will receive from the FIT on the electricity you generate. And that is good because the FIT is not a tax and is not taxpayers money, honestly, that’s what the PV industry tells us. It comes from…er…um…oh, yes…the electricity companies. Excellent, brilliant, just what we need; a windfall tax on those nasty electricity companies. Except that it is a pass-through cost which will be recovered from everybody’s electricity bills. No, I’m having a problem here; I need more cheese. I can’t dream that obtusely. I think that means the taxpayer!

Oh, and by the way, who do you think will provide the loans? Yes, you guessed, those philanthropic institutions who screwed the entire global economy. Anyway, not to worry, there is plenty of money around these days. In fact we have got so much that we invented a new game to amuse the finance industry. It is called “cap and trade” and is a brilliant way of saving the planet. Rather than actually doing stuff and building low carbon generating plant, we just gamble on red; we pay the Chinese not to build power stations they were not going to build anyway, so that we can carry on burning coal until the skies are black. Tuvalu goes under six feet of ocean, but what the heck, the government will all be retired and living off consultancy fees from the banks.

No, it must be a dream. Nobody could possibly devise a reality as perverse as this!

CFCL fuel cell micro CHP is the biz!

Following the successful development of a fuel cell which not only works and achieves the highest electrical efficiency of any generation technology in existence, (not to mention the start of production at their Heinsberg plant in Germany last month), CFCL have now established a dealership with Neco, so you can actually go out and buy the Bluegen 2kWe fuel cell generator with a demonstrated efficiency of ~60% at the point of use. Of course, you also get to use the "waste" heat so it is really quite an amazing bit of kit. If only I had £20,000 or so to spare! Not cheap, but it actually exists, thus quashing the rumours that fuel cell technology is all vapourware!
At that price it would take over 10 years to pay back (based on UK energy prices), but if the UK government gets its act together and comes up with a sensible FiT, it would be nearer 5 years and, of course, that would help build production rates and bring down prices so that it would no longer need subsidy, probably in less than 5 years, unlike some other, more questionable micro-generation technologies.

CFCL back on track!

Perhaps there is some justice after all! Following a string of bad luck it seems that, not only have Ceramic Fuel Cells (CFCL) managed to sort out their funding difficulties, they have almost miraculously commenced production of world leading SOFC fuel cell stacks at their Heinsberg plant in Germany.

So, in less than a year, CFCL have recovered from a financial crisis, set up a factory, started production...and started selling "commercial" products! Now when I say "commercial" it is still a bit pricey; somewhere between £20,000-£30,000 for the 2kWe Bluegen APU!

But, and this is the interesting bit, the electrical efficiency of the production unit (i.e. not in a lab or in perfect conditions) is almost 60%, running on natural gas, so taking reformation to hydrogen and other parasitics into account. At the opening event, one incredulous senior representative of one of Germany's energy companies, on seeing the dial at 56.5% exclaimed: "I can hardly believe it; that is better than any of our gas turbine plants...even ignoring the transmission loses between the power station and the user!"

Also, of course, ignoring the potential for capturing the other 40-odd percent as waste heat in a CHP system, which is what CFCL are continuing to develop, apparently on track and on time. Rumoured for a market launch of the micro CHP packaged unit in 2012-13?

Brendan Dow (CEO of CFCL) was almost apologetic: "That must be a Friday afternoon model; the others seem to get at least 60%" And just in case you suspect he is overstating his case, if you follow the link to the Bluegen press release, you will notice the display for the unit there at 60.2%!

I suspect the days of CCGT are numbered!

For information on other Solid Oxide Fuel Cell micro CHP units, click here.

Micro CHP in the spotlight

Quite a bit has happened in the micro CHP world since my last blog. Back in June, Micropower Europe was launched during the EU Green Week in Brussels. They put on an exhibition of of Microgeneration technologies to mark the event attended by Andris Piebalgs, EU Energy Commissioner. He seemed rather impressed with the products on offer, not surprisingly as there were PEM fuel cell units from Baxi (European Fuel Cells), Internal Combustion Engines (again Baxi with the 5kW Senertec unit, plus Vaillant Ecopower), Stirling engines from EHE (aka Whispertech who are now finally producing units out of their factory in Tolosa, Spain with the first units now being sold in Germany, Netherlands and, shortly, UK) and...Baxi again!.

At last it seems there is more than one micro CHP technology on offer. It has certainly taken its time, but finally we are seeing a range of products suited to various applications. A pity the subsidies poured into other technologies have so far failed to materialise for micro CHP, but then I have always argued that micro CHP is economically viable on its own merits. Still, it would be nice to get some financial recognition as well as kind words!

Commissioner Piebalgs did, however, seem slightly bemused that the energy company E.ON were present (indeed they are founder members of Micropower Europe); he was under the impression that the established energy suppliers would resist Microgeneration as it appears to erode their core business. That is exactly what they did think to start with, but the more perceptive of them have subsequently realised that, not only do they have no choice, but that Microgeneration, and micro CHP in particular, offers additional business opportunities at every level of the value chain from supporting intermittent renewable generation, reducing network impacts and a plethora of options at the retail supply end.

Baxi micro CHP leads the way?

At last some recognition of the benefits of micro CHP! At the Micropower Awards last week, Baxi won the award for innovation for their Ecogen micro CHP unit against all other Microgeneration technologies. So I should be deliriously happy that the industry has actually recognised that a fossil fuelled technology can make a significant contribution to the low carbon future...or should I? At the Micropower conference preceding the awards ceremony, there was a wonderful presentation from NERA, consultants to the UK Government (DECC) on the economics of the forthcoming FIT. An excellent, well argued case for prioritising support for technology measures based on either carbon mitigation cost and/or cost per kWh of renewable energy produced; somewhat tarnished by the following pronouncement from DECC that they would probably cave in to the persistent lobbying of the eco-bling PV industry regardless and give them disproportionately large subsidies anyway because, well...they need the money! Quite why the fuel poor of the UK should be forced to subsidise the vast corporate PV industry beats me. However, this is what happens when you get government by sound bite and technology adoption by target. When asked why the FIT for electricity generation was being fast-tracked to the detriment of the far more significant RHI for heat-based measures, and why there was no planned government support at all (not even proposed, not even under consideration) for technologies which might tackle serious problems such as cooling in buildings ( a major energy consumer in most of Western Europe), the DECC spokesman admitted that they were not looking at cooling "because there is no EU target for cooling". Well that's a relief! The EU has decided to bury their head in the sand over cooling to focus their attention on really useful electrical technologies like PV (the most carbon inefficient measure of all) and climate change will just go away. Maybe we should just pass a law banning climate change and, by the same process, it will just cease to be a problem. I dread to imagine what nonsense the UK government will come up with for the FIT if they are so short sighted that their policy is to be based on "targets" rather than the reality of climate change or any semblance of economics or common sense.

CFCL in trouble again!

What is it with CFCL? They clearly have the best fuel cell technology for micro CHP by a very long way. Thay have demonstrated electrical efficiencies way beyond what anybody else has come near to; 70% from primary fuel, making it significantly better than the best central plant efficiency ever seen. At that rate you could chuck away the heat and still be head and shoulders above CCGT! But of course they still have the heat to play with so overall efficiencies of > 90% are more than possible; that is what makes micro CHP such a winner compared with centralised electricity generation.
Of course fuel cells tend to degrade over time so you would be equally astonished that CFCL have managed to achieve better than 2% per 1000 hours in a packaged unit and better than 1% in a laboratory unit, so they can expect to achieve well in excess of 10 years real life and rumours have it that they have devised a cunning plan to maintain total efficiency at 100% throughout the entire life of the unit!
No-one else comes near, not Kyocera, nor Ceres, but then it is almost like fate has it in for them. First they get stung by the Icelandic banks for their capital, manage to recover with new investors filling the funding gap, then NUON (their Dutch partner) get taken over by Vattenfall (who clearly don't give a damn for New Energy) decide to dump the partnership because "it is not core". Bummer!
Still there are many others out there who will no doubt see the opportunity, though sad that CFCL have to waste so much time to demonstrate the blindingly obvious that they are well ahead of the pack!

Micro CHP at ISH Frankfurt

The biannual ISH (Heating & Plumbing) exhibition in Frankfurt is the largest of its kind in Europe so boiler manufacturers and everyone else in the heating industry tend to use it as a platform to launch their new products for the next couple of years. It is also something of a barometer of the state both of individual companies and individual technologies. In which case, the sheer number of micro CHP products on show should mean that it is all about to happen. All the major boiler companies had micro CHP products on their stands, including EHE (with the WhisperGen unit) who were demonstrating their first units off the new production line in Spain, Baxi, Remeha, Vaillant and Viessmann (with units based on the MEC engine) planning to launch this year in UK, Netherlands and Germany, and Elco (formerly known as Merloni/Ariston) with another free piston Stirling engine, but this time from Infinia in the USA.

Then there were the internal combustion engine based products with Baxi (Senertec, Dachs) 5kWe unit, Vaillant (Ecopower) and Vaillant again with their recently announced product based on the 1kWe Honda engine. That product has sold more than 60,000 units in Japan under the Ecowill brand, as well as some units in USA through Climate Energy, so it is encouraging to see the technology finally make it to Europe, although it will be interesting to see whether Vaillant will try and package the unit to perform more efficiently than the overseas units.

And then there were the fuel cells! Probably not available commercially for a few years yet, but again, major players like Baxi with their PEM fuel cell now in partnership with Ballard who have been so successful in Japan in partnership with Ebara; so, once more, very encouraging to see the technology coming over here, although again with some reservations about how applicable it is to European market requirements.

So, all in all, it seems that micro CHP might just be about to make its debut on a mass scale all across Europe; some might say "not before time", but the sheer number and calibre of manufacturers in the market now gives credibility to a technology which has seen a number of false dawns.

Windfall Energy Tax

What a brilliant idea! I had forgotten quite what an astute financial wizard Gordon was; yet another excuse for a stealth tax. Dress it up as a support measure for the fuel poor and bingo, another £750 million he does not have to find from his social budget. Of course this will in no way affect our energy bills. Of course not; the good old energy suppliers will take it on the chin and tell their shareholders that, due to the UK Government's inability to plan energy policy more than six months ahead, they will just have to accept lower dividends this year. So that means the pension funds will have less money, which in turn means that the pensioners will just have to accept less...all very diluted by that stage so no-one will notice. On the other hand they might just stuff it on the bills of those of us who pay our own, so that the increase is compounded rather than mitigated.

In the meantime, the Government is silent on where we are going to find £100 billion the energy companies say they will need to invest to keep the lights on over the next decade or so. Maybe we just won't bother closing our dirty old coal power plants...or maybe we will cover every roof in the country with PV. (Actually that would cost more than £200 billion, but at least it would make the PV industry obscenely rich).

Whilst this debacle unfolds, the debate around FIT (Feed In Tariffs) continues its perverse way. Already the obligation on suppliers to offer fair terms for export has resulted in a bunch of apparently attractive, but hopelessly unsustainable offerings including one where you get paid 18p/kWh for all you produce from microgeneration. So if you are rich enough to cough up £10,000 for a PV system, you can get the UK taxpayer to subsidise you to the tune of £2,500 (is that all the PV industry cries?), then your fellow tax/bill payers will subsidise you another 13p/kWh (around £200 per year) so you can demonstrate your eco-bling credentials. On the other hand if you install a £3,000 micro CHP system, you will get a more sensible payment of around 5p/kWh, more or less what it should be worth on the wholesale market. When I say, "should be", the sad reality is that it is currently worth nothing at all as there is no system in place for suppliers to trade export from microgeneration; the proposed infrastructure changes would have swallowed the entire value of any electricity produced by householders using any microgeneration technology. So the notion of introducing a FIT which would reward each and every technology at a different rate and, according to some proponents, would include heat (even though you cannot conceivably export heat), would raise a few interesting challenges for all concerned. Never mind, as long as the PV gravy train carries on. Of course, the FIT advocates are perfectly well aware that a FIT based on the German model is a no-hoper logistically, so what are they really after? It turns out that they are actually proposing a "deemed" FIT which takes an assumed output from each microgeneration technology over its entire life and capitalises it up front. This FIT (aka capital grant) should encourage microgeneration, well PV at least; based on the German levels of subsidy, a typical PV system producing 1600kWh annually would attract a grant of £12,800. Not bad for a system that costs £10,000; you could be paid (by your neighbours) to take it! Last one to sign up is a cissy!

Microgeneration gets the green light

The UK Government (BERR) today published the results of an extensive market study into microgeneration. They seem to think the potential is fantastic, 9 million systems installed by 2020, as much power as 5 nuclear power stations and, going on, enough to save 30 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030.
The research was undertaken in support of the commitment in the Climate Change Act last year to establish binding targets if the potential could be demonstrated; now it has. So will Gordon bite the bullet? After all it is not his money and yet another stealth tax will hardly be noticed. Oh, sorry, forgot to mention that this fantastic microgeneration roll-out would be funded by a feed-in tariff like the German one which may deliver products into the market, but is probably one of the most expensive and bureaucratic subsidies ever invented, as popular as the Common Agricultural Policy with proponents and about as unpopular with those who have to pay-the consumer! Supporters point to the impressive growth in PV in Germany, conveniently forgetting that PV is one of the most absurdly over-subsidised technologies ever, with a payment of 40p/kWh (that is four times what you currently pay for conventional power and ten times what micro CHP costs), the subsidy being inversely proportional to the viability of the technology. That is, the less cost-effective the technology, the bigger the subsidy, a perverse incentive to invest in the least effective generation option.
You would assume that this meant PV must have some pretty impressive environmental credentials. You would be wrong. Solar PV (polycrystalline silicon) uses vast amounts of energy to produce, so that it takes around 12 years just to pay for the energy consumed in manufacture and delivers electricity at about 0.25kg/kWh, about half the UK average mix, but higher than fossil fuelled micro CHP at 0.22kg/kWh! So then would you assume that micro CHP gets an even better subsidy? Oh no, it is proposed that micro CHP gets a mere 5p/kWh, one eighth of PV. Now I have often argued that micro CHP does not need subsidy, just a level playing field, so I am not particularly upset about the lower subsidy to micro CHP. The problem is that we have finite resources (yes it is YOUR money that will be collected through higher electricity bills to subsidise the PV industry, but then you probably think the UK taxpayer should be supporting poor start-up companies like...er...BP, Sharp, Kyocera...) and if we are all forced to subsidise PV, with a whole lot more going to nuclear, there will not be much left to invest in sensible technologies.
Parliament voted against feed-in tariffs the other day, so maybe they have seen sense, but then again, Gordon might decide it is just too tempting to get the Greens and the motorists off his back when he knows that a coherent energy taxation strategy is just too difficult to implement.
Microgeneration does have its place and great potential, but we should not be wasting our limited resources on irrelevant technologies. The last thing the microgeneration industry needs is more misguided government intervention which squanders resources, alienates the taxpayer and which will never be enough to keep the PV industry happy anyway.
For further information on various microgeneration technologies, visit the micro CHP website and see the paper on Microgeneration and micro CHP.

Europe conspires against micro CHP?

The COGEN Europe conference last week was an almost surreal event. In attendance, all the major players in the CHP industry complaining for almost two days about how unfair the market was to large scale CHP and bemoaning the lack of financial support (aka subsidies) to make the industry viable. Tacked on at the end of the conference, a concession to the micro CHP interests with a "workshop" on micro CHP; but the micro CHP industry was not whingeing about subsidies, just asking to be allowed to play on the same field as other microgeneration technologies, even if the field was tilted rather steeply against them.
The UK representative from DEFRA had earlier declared financial support for micro CHP under the UK's Low Carbon Buildings Programme, despite the fact that it has taken so long to agree the accreditation process for micro CHP that there is unlikely to be any money left for micro CHP. He seemed either unaware or unconcerned that, whilst micro CHP is analysed to the nth degree to see just how much better it is than conventional solutions, other microgeneration technologies have been "nodded through" on the basis that they were already on the market and already being subsidised under the Clear Skies Programme. There is still no agreed common baseline (i.e. what you are comparing it with) for performance of microgeneration technologies, so you have no idea whether your investment is worthwhile or not...except for micro CHP. In the meantime, you can buy a micro wind turbine, for example, get your grant (subsidised by me) and then generate next to nothing. Does this mean that the taxpayer will get a refund when the truth is known, or will the misguided owners of micro wind turbines be given a refund for buying products endorsed by the Government accreditation scheme? Neither I suspect.
It might have been nice to get some financial support for micro CHP, but that is not the point. The point is that the UK Microgeneration Certification Scheme, whilst being the gateway for obtaining grants under LCBP, will effectively be the only scheme for accrediting micro CHP at all, even for compliance with Building Regulations, so unless you comply with the MCS scheme, you will not be able to sell your micro CHP products.
And now we see the same thing again at European level. The EU expert responsible for drafting the list of compliant technologies for inclusion in the database for the Directive on energy efficient building products, was not even intending to include micro CHP on the list! He conceded that "this might disadvantage micro CHP" with regards to market access; yes, rather like not issuing passports "might disadvantage" somebody wishing to enter a country! His justification was "that there are so few micro CHP products on the market". It seems to have escaped his notice that there never will be any on the market if they are not included in the list of compliant products. Catch 22!
So, is this a conspiracy, or just incompetence? You decide.

WhisperGen set up micro CHP manufacturing Joint Venture with MCC

Three years after announcing their 80,000 micro CHP unit deal with Powergen (now E.ON) in the UK, WhisperGen have finally managed to set up a JV with Spanish white goods manufacturer Mondragon CC to produce their 1kWe Stirling engine microCHP unit for the European market.

This is really good news for those who have been eagerly awaiting the availability of mass produced units following Powergen's limited roll-out in 2004, since when WhisperGen units have been rather hard to come by! No announcement so far from E.ON as to when they will be offering the mass produced units in the UK, but rumour has it that they should start to become available to the general public in 2009. Meanwhile a number of trials are taking place in Germany and Netherlands, so we could see a real European launch at the same time.

Bearing in mind that WhisperGen units were available in 1998 (as marine diesel, DC variants) it is salutory to see just how long it takes from prototype to commercial product; something to bear in mind when new entrants claim they are "launching next year" when they have yet to install more than a handful of trial units. Still, there could be other micro CHP units out there in the not too distant future with Microgen probably the leading contender.

For more information on this and other micro CHP click here

EON partner with EC Power micro CHP

You may have seen the news that E.ON have signed a deal with EC Power to distribute their micro CHP products in the UK. This rather confusing announcement is due to the number of definitions of "micro CHP" floating around.
Micro CHP is an MG (Micro Generation) technology and thus falls within the EU definition of MG which includes anything below 50kWe (for electrical generating technologies) or 45kWt (for heat producing technologies).

Nobody seems very clear about whether this is an "either/or" definition for CHP technologies. Various alternative definitions seek to clarify the situation, including one from the Carbon Trust who categorise what used to be called "micro CHP" as "domestic micro CHP" including only packaged units designed for individual homes, whilst "commercial micro CHP" comprises an assembly of ancillary components such as boilers, heat exchangers etc in a plant room configuration. The EC Power unit, at 15kWe electrical output, is clearly in the latter category, although I would tend to refer to it as "mini CHP".

Whatever the definition, it is good news that E.ON, a major energy company, has set up a deal with EC Power (incidentally a subsidiary of Norwegian oil and gas giant StatoilHydro) and their gas-fired mini CHP technology is being successfully installed in sheltered housing, schools and offices where it provides an excellent payback due to its very flexible operation which allows it to track either electrical or thermal demand.

For more information on the EC Power product range click here.
For more information on other micro CHP products and micro CHP generally, click here

Flavours of micro CHP

Amazing! In the last three days we have had announcements of deals of as many different micro CHP technologies. Firstly Ceres (Solid Oxide Fuel Cells) announced that Centrica (aka British Gas) had bought into 10% of their company, then EON announce a deal with Energetix to trial their Organic Rankine Cycle unit, then Disenco announce another manufacturing deal with Malvern boilers. What does it all mean?

Ceres have been hyping their fuel cell technology which promises to be the answer to a maidens prayer with all kinds of developments including demonstrations of their "wall mounted" micro CHP unit. Much like Microgen and Acumentrics, they have demonstrated only that it is possible to erect very substantial brick walls. Unlike those two developers they have yet to demonstrate a packaged micro CHP product providing heat and power in a live application. Whilst BG may have plenty of cash to squander on promising technologies, I really cannot understand their simultaneous promise to order 37,500 Ceres fuel cell micro CHP units. What on earth are they thinking of? Why not 37,501 units? Ah well, it is their money!

Energetix, on the other hand, with their Genlec unit, have demonstrated a very credible if modestly efficient genuinely wall-mounted micro CHP unit. This product, at first appears rather pointless. It has a nominal efficiency lower than other technologies and is a couple of years behind them. So what is the big deal? Just the fact that it actually exists and might actually deliver what it promises! The Genlec unit uses readily available components so should be relatively cheap or at least predictable cost; it is very flexible in operation, so may have more or less nominal efficiency in the field; it is genuinely wall-mountable, not a 100kg monster like Microgen nor the size of a wall-mounted dishwasher like Acumentrics. Is this important? Some say it is as the majority of boilers sold today are wall-mounted; others say not as this is just a fad and there is nothing wrong with floor-mounted products.

Disenco now have an engine manufacturer and a boiler partner. If their partners can produce the 3kWe products to performance and life requirements it is still quite a challenge to overcome the vagaries of the export reward schemes and recover some value for the electricity produced.

So, plenty of oportunities and plenty of challenges; at least it is good to see micro CHP really making some progress and with luck presenting us with a choice of products to suit our various needs.

Nuclear energy and micro CHP

Today the British Government formally announced that it will permit the major energy companies to squander billions on nuclear. Not a penny of taxpayers money we are assured, although quite how that squares with the current £72 billion clean-up of existing nuclear committed so far I am unsure. Not that this decision will make the slightest difference to the impending energy gap as the current nukes and dirty coal close down over the next decade; after all there is unlikely to be a single kWh of nuclear electric generated much before 2020!

That is the big difference between the megalomaniac nuclear industry and micro CHP. Whilst nuclear takes decades to build before producing any power at all, micro CHP can be installed 1kW at a time, producing power from day one. In terms of capacity, if we replaced all domestic gas boilers (as they reach the end of their useful life) with micro CHP , we could in theory install 1.5 million micro CHP units every year. That is equivalent to 1.5GWe, or not far off the size of one nuclear power station in 2008, another in 2009, in 2010 and ...you get the picture. By 2020, we could have the equivalent of twelve nukes powered by micro CHP. And if it didn't work out for some reason, we could just stop installing them; on the other hand, with nuclear you have to commit to the whole £2billion (or more) price tag for a single station and if, after 10 years construction, it doesn't stack up, you have absolutely nothing to show for your money...which would you invest in?

Against this dismal background, it is encouraging to hear that Ceramic Fuel Cells have delivered yet another micro CHP unit to be tested by E.ON in the UK; that is in addition to the units recently shipped to GdF in France (home of European nuclear) and EWE in Germany. I am pretty sure that they will be producing low carbon electricity some time before 2020.

Disenco micro CHP

These guys really seem to be making some progress. Not that they don't still have a long way to go to market, but Disenco's announcement of a deal with a manufacturer is a major step forward for this 3kWe micro CHP product.

Admittedly it comes on the same day that the UK Government finally caved in to the nuclear lobby which could screw up the entire energy landscape for the next 20 years, but it does improve credibility for a technology which has suffered from interminable delays in getting products to market.

It is a sad, but unavoidable fact that whilst investors have drip fed micro CHP, the legislators have continually raised the bar by mandating increasingly higher efficiency boilers for all homes; not a bad thing in itself, but it means that model T Ford micro CHP is competing with Polo Blue Motion ICE technology. The good news is that boilers now have nowhere to go; they have hit the peak of their efficiency potential and if micro CHP can deliver benefits against today's boilers, it is all downhill from here. The Carbon Trust report has somewhat belatedly demonstrated the carbon mitigation and economic benfits of microCHP against these high efficiency boilers so hopefully, Disenco's unit will be able to establish itself as another step change in performance for domestic energy systems.

Micro CHP back in business

A lot has happened since the last entry on this blog, mainly due to my indolence over the past nine months. However, an update on an impressive range of micro CHP activities over that period:

Two companies, Yanmar (the Japanese Diesel engine manufacturer) and EC Power have both launched a range of improved CHP products in the UK including biodiesel variants.

CFCL (Solid Oxide Fuel Cell CHP) have announced partnerships with a number of European boiler manufacturers and energy companies, whilst Acumentrics (also SOFC) demonstrated their wall-mounted unit to energy companies in Germany.

Baxi, Remeha, Viessmann and eventually Vaillant declared their partnership with MEC (the heir to the Microgen technology) and expect to launch a major trial in 2008.

WhisperGen announced that they have finally struck a deal with MCC to manufacture their unit with mass production for Netherlands and Germany expected by mid-2008.

The Carbon Trust published another interim report on their extensive micro CHP field trial, confirming what most of us already knew, that micro CHP is environmentally viable and produces good economic paybacks for about half the homes in the UK based on current technologies (those with annual heat loss greater than 20,000kWh); they also pointed out that paybacks would be improved if householders could get decent value for their exported power, but that is going to be a tough nut to crack. It is not that energy suppliers are necessarily reluctant to offer a decent export value, indeed many of them are offering silly amounts presumably as some kind of PR initiative, but there is still no cost-effective method of trading exports within the settlement system nor even for ROCs.

Today, Disenco announced that they had successfully demonstrated their high efficiency Stirling based unit; this technology had led the field in the 1990's, but funding difficulties delayed development. Hopefully now they can move towards a commercial product, but the electrical output of 3kWe means they face challenges with capturing value of electrical generation for domestic installations where a substantial part of their output is exported.

All in all, it has been a good year for micro CHP with a number of products suitable for a range of applications reaching the market in UK, Europe, Japan and USA.

Whinge, whinge for microgeneration (PV only)

Well here we are again at the beginning of the month and the PV industry is crying out again for more subsidies. Their argument is with the LCBP grants, which run out within 10 minutes of their availablity every month. What a surprise? The PV industry says it is because the govenrment is providing inadeqaute support for a fantastic technology. Saner members of scoiety probably recognise that if you offer ridiculous subsidies (50%) for a product which is an economic basket case, then there are some who might think they are getting a good deal. Even with this absurd subsidy though, the payback is over 60 years! There are obviously too many nutters in London with too much money and no understanding of life, the universe or anything to realise that this is one of the biggest scams of the 21st century. Rather than whingeing about inadequate amounts of funding, might they not consider why PV gets 50% whilst other technologies get rather less; and if PV got, say 30%, as biomass, would the money run out quite so fast?
An objective observer might also wonder why PV is in quite such a priveleged position; does someone with a major investment in a PV company have a disproportionate influence in government circles; and if so, whose brother is he?

Not such a sad day for micro CHP

The premature revalations of the death of Microgen (post 1st February 2007) have, according to the latest rumours, proved unfounded. Why is it that the doom mongers of micro CHP jump on every opportunity to belittle the benefits or even the mere existence of micro CHP?
According to a number of credible sources, the Microgen micro CHP unit is alive and kicking, through a consortium of Baxi, Remeha and Gas Terra (aka Gasunie). Further rumours indicate that both Baxi and Remeha plan to display their Microgen based miro CHP units at ISH in Frankfurt next week.

Of course micro CHP only delivers electricity at 200g/kWh compared with renewable technologies such as PV at a mere 250g/kWh, so why should any governement really support it?

10,000 micro CHP units in Netherlands

Popular opinion has always assumed that the UK, Netherlands and Germany would be the major markets for micro CHP. Until now, Germany has led the way in mini-CHP with thousands of Senertec Dachs units installed over the past few years. But those were not micro CHP units as they are not really suitable for individual homes. Then it was the UK with Powergen luanching the Whispergen in 2004. Since then Powergen have been very cautious in their roll out with only a few hundred units installed, waiting perhaps until the regulatory and infrastructure mess sorted itself out.

Now the Dutch seem to be leaping headlong into the fray with an announcement by their three major utilities (Essent, NUON, Eneco) that they intend to install 10,000 micro CHP units by 2009. As the only product really available in Netherlands today is the WhisperGen 1kWe unit, this looks like more good news for them.

Subsidy for micro CHP?

I notice that wikipedia mentions the financial incentives available to micro CHP, amongst them the 5% VAT rate applicable to micro CHP installations in existing homes. The standard VAT rate in the UK is 17.5% and the article concludes that this is tanatamount to a 12.5% subsidy for micro CHP. What the article fails to point out is that most energy efficiency/energy saving devices are rated at 5% for VAT purposes as this is the rate of VAT on energy. It would be perverse to charge 5% on energy use and 17.5% on energy saving; that is why energy saving and energy use are charged at the same rate. It is not a subsidy, just common sense.
Indeed micro CHP continues to be treated as something of a Cinderella of the micorgeneration industry. It has been excluded from the UK Government's LCBP phase 2 and, whilst eligible for phase 1, they have yet to start the accreditation process, so it is impossible to actually get any funding. In fact, the government has failed even to state what level of support would be available if they ever get the accreditation process off the ground; makes you wonder just how serious they are in their support for the technology. In the meantime the solar industry is gobbling up every penny going. Let's hope that they see sense when it comes to phase 3 and provide some credible support for micro CHP.

Getting our priorities right

The House of Commons Trade & Industry Committe has published its report (Local Energy -Turning consumers into producers) and decided to promote the term "local energy" instead of "microgeneration".

I am sure this will make all the difference to the uptake of micro CHP and of reinforcing consumer confidence; it would probably help to establish consumer confidence rather more if the Government was seen to be supporting relevant microgeneration technologies which could actually make a difference to the UK rather than just chucking money down a bottomless pit. The LCBP is being bled dry by the solar industry with little prospect of any significant reduction in cost (as was the intention) as a result.

George Monbiot rightly criticises the microgeneration industry for overyhyping the potential of micro wind and PV; unfortunately, he throws out the baby with the bathwater. There are at least two microgeneration technologies which could make a real difference to our energy efiicnecy and carbon impact. For gas-heated homes, micro CHP can reduce carbon by around 15% (typically 1-1.5 tonnes per year per household), and for homes which do not have gas, GSHP (Ground Source Heat Pumps) can reduce carbon by 4 tonnes or more, depending which fuel is being displaced. The problem with promoting technologies with dubious environmental credentials (like PV) is that the public (and commentators like George) lose confidence and assume that all microgeneration is a scam.

Powergen/E.ON is clearly still in the micro CHP game

The rumours of Powergen (the retail energy supply business of E.ON UK plc) deciding to abandon micro CHP are clearly way out of line. At today's Micro CHP summit arranged by Delta Energy, 10% of the delegates were E.ON Group employees. Either they have nothing better to do or they are still actively interested in the technology!

Other good news from the summit is that Microgen may be dead, but Microgen 2 is about to emerge phoenix-like from the ashes and, as rumours abound, there are more micro CHP players out there than you can shake a stick at. Fuel cells, Rankine engines, Stirling engines and IC engines all have contenders, leading towards the ideal scenario where there is a product suitable for every part of the market.