Report from the Stationary Fuel Cell Conference in London

Undoubtedly, stationary fuel cells will be on commercial markets much sooner than fuel cell or hydrogen powered vehicles. The conference in London at the end of March was an interesting and informative event throughout, showing just how far this segment has to go and how far it has already come.

Presenters and delegates included high-profile members of leading companies in this field, such as Sulzer Hexis, MTU and DuPont. Since this conference was limited to just some 30-40 attendees, it gave everyone a perfect opportunity for networking and building new contacts. Even though the event took place in the UK, most delegates were from other countries, either the USA, Germany or elsewhere in Europe.

A number of presentations in the early sessions covered the current state of developments of the specific fuel cell industry today. Adam Chase from E4tech pointed out the commercial potential for fuel cells in stationary applications and included current developments by the UK government (Energy White Paper) in his presentation.

Later on, representatives from various companies explained different case studies where stationary fuel cells have been in place for a while. Presentations included examples of existing hydrogen and stationary fuel cell islands and possibilities for the future, presented by David Hart from the UK's Imperial College.

Gerhard Huppmann from MTU Friedrichshafen and Roland Diethelm from Sulzer Hexis continued with information about their current and future market strategies. Huppmann pointed out, that MTU’s aim is to develop technology which can be used for decentralised energy production which should use decentralised gases (e.g. natural gas, coal gas etc.) in order to achieve environmental targets. MTU’s current SOFC "HotModule" (250kW) has sold about 20 units so far with plans to continue selling over the next few years. Furthermore, MTU is thinking about widening its production range towards larger stationary fuel cells (up to 3-4MW) and even down towards smaller, residential fuel cells (as low as 25kW).

Sulzer Hexis' efforts in the area are focused on its HXS1000 (1kW) residential fuel cell of which about 90 have been sold so far. Diethelm explained, that Sulzer Hexis' strategy is to work together with international utility companies rather than individual customers. The company has plans to build a new residential fuel cell product, called "Galileo" which aims to replace the HXS1000. Sulzer Hexis aims to bring it on the market by 2004/05 and sell about 1,000 - 10,000 units each year.

The afternoon of day one was dominated by presentations about financing the fuel cell industry. MacMurray Whale from National Bank Financials (Canada) summarised, that, in order to receive funds from capital ventures, today’s companies should concentrate more on making money by selling products than spending money on developing one prototype after the other.

The second day of the conference was similarly structured to day one. Various case studies underlined the efforts of companies and other organisations to bring stationary and residential fuel cells to a commercial market. Andreas Ziolek from the German Fuel Cell Network Nordrhein-Westfalen and Allan Jones from Woking Park Fuel Cell CHP (where one of very few fuel cell systems in the UK is installed) pointed out their work in this field.

The afternoon was dominated by presentations about environmental, regulatory and legal issues. Oliver Rapp from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) explained that fuel cells should play an important role in a sustainable energy supply system. Further papers discussed possibilities and strategies to promote and encourage fuel cell efforts, leaving conference attendees with a positive impression of what has already been accomplished and a feeling that the paths forward were beginning to become clearer.