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.