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"Callux practice test for fuel cell heating takes stock (06/11/2013)


256 years of continuous operation

In the course of the operation of now more than 350 fuel cell heating Callux all parties involved in the project have gained extensive experience are the basis for the upcoming launch. Image: callux / E.ON

The Callux project, the largest national field test of fuel cell heating, aims to prepare the market for the innovative systems. After 350 installations to date with 2.3 million hours, which corresponds to a total of 256 years, and 1.3 million kilowatt hours of electricity produced callux has already achieved significant successes. example, the number of service calls has halved in the course of the project, including substantially improving Stack life expectancy was far more responsible than 16,000 hours. In addition, the electrical efficiency during the project down to 34 and the total efficiency of up to 96 percent higher. This was accompanied by a reduction in CO2 emissions by up to one-third per plant, compared with a condensing boiler and electricity from the grid. Also, the device dimensions and weight have almost halved. As part of the practical test, the manufacturers have the design and the operation of the systems more and more visually and ergonomically adjusted to your own assortment. however Callux addition to technical improvements, the project was able to achieve important goals in the cost. The binding agreement at the outset of quantities and cost objectives, the expense for the production of fuel cell heating has been reduced by 60 percent since the start of the project. The cost of the service and the provision of spare parts were reduced by 90 percent. An improvement here was developed by the callux communication interface, the Callux box, can be achieved. It transmits fault and error messages and provides a more effective care of the plants. Also, the installation of innovative heating systems simplified thanks to increasingly better integration into existing home automation. Callux The practice test runs until mid-2016. By then, more than 500 devices, the manufacturer Baxi Innotech, Hexis and Vaillant with the participating utility EnBW, E.ON, EWE, MVV Energie and VNG are to be tested under everyday conditions in family homes. Leipzig, 06.11.2013
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IBZ Newsletter
http://www.ibz-info.de/home.HomeNewsletter.html?id=75&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=newsletter_2013-11-06
"Conference and Exhibition f-cell (06.11.2013)

"New Dynamics in the fuel cell industry"

Interested professionals on the f-cell in the Stuttgart exhibition halls. Picture: Peter Sauber Agency / KD bush

To 13 Times found in Stuttgart "f-cell" instead, a trade fair and conference event for professionals in the hydrogen and fuel cell industry. Over 3,000 visitors from 29 countries visited the fair with 155 exhibitors, the conference with 143 lectures and other related events. In the area of fuel cell systems, the central message was that in the three-day industry event: the threshold for market entry is reached - now increased political support is necessary. The high technical standard of fuel cell systems for domestic energy supply demonstrated at the show including various manufacturers. So Viessmann start next spring with the system designed for single-family homes "Vitovalor 300-P" in the market. Andre Vollmer, product manager, Hexis, announced on the f-cell that the "Galileo" plants are in the phase of the pilot launch. "2016 will be available in large numbers in the device market," said Vollmer. Baxi Innotech plans to commercialize his device "Gamma Prize" for spring 2015. Dr. Klaus Bonhoff, CEO of the National Organisation for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NOW) described the situation this way: "We have arrived at a turning point. The technical market preparation is far successfully completed. In the coming years will determine whether the very good, but still too expensive fuel cell technology manages the way into the market. "To the sector need to support the policy. Bonhoff campaigned for the National Innovation Programme for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NIP) to extend beyond 2016. The NOW has developed a strategy paper that shows how a self-sustaining market by 2025 is achievable.
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http://www.now-gmbh.de/fileadmin/user_upload/RE_Publikationen_NEU_2013/Publikationen_NIP/hydrogen_and_fuel_cell_technologies_-_key_pillars_of_the_energy_transition_2_0.pdf

This is perhaps most interesting about strategy(June 2013)
Small extract doc is in English:
"Target market Germany 2025:
• More than a half a million fuel cell heating devices in operation
• More than 1,000 fuel cell cogeneration units installed for home energy, industry and ships
• More than 25,000 secure electricity supply units produced
Home energy supply
Through cogeneration, fuel cells in home energy supply save up to 50% CO2 in supplying residential buildings. They distinguish themselves in this application area from other CHP units such as Stirling or combustion engines through their high efficiency, as well as an almost fully emission-free and noiseless operation. Fuel cell CHP systems can already achieve high savings in existing buildings with relatively small investment and limited building work. The impressive CHP coefficient makes it interesting also for new buildings. Operating with organic natural gas – possibly also with hydrogen – it converts renewable energy sources into electricity and heat highly efficiently.

Fuel cell CHP devices will be operated in the low-voltage networks, as is the case with photo-voltaic roof systems (PV); they can be linked to virtual power plants through simple communication technologies in order to stabilise the fluctuating, renewable electricity supply from wind and sun. Fuel cells and PVs are ideal for home use and together help effectively solve the enormous challenges in the development and stability of electrical grids.
Within the Callux lighthouse project and further activities there have been over 500 units in-stalled so far. In over four million operational hours, they have proven their suitability for every-day use and an already high technical maturity. Teaching programmes for the trades who install and service the units are already intensively used. The first manufacturers begin market introduction in 2013, in which they offer end customers appliances together with a full maintenance contract. The Fuel Cell Initiative (IBZ) and the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) Fuel Cell Working Group (AG BZ) predict that commercial marketability can be achieved without funding from 2020. Then up to 75,000 units could be sold annually. This represents 15 to 20% of the German heating appliance market.
It is important in the context of NIP’s further development to establish a self-sustaining market for highly-efficient CHP facilities with fuel cells. To achieve this, the number of installed units must be substantially increased. A coordinated market initiative of manufacturers, suppliers and trade is being prepared. Parallel to this series production will be developed and manufacturing costs reduced to a competitive level through technical optimisation and rising demand. As the first manufacturers from Germany will already market products, apart from a stable framework for research, development and demonstration projects, a digressive, temporary, technical and economic criteria-focussed, market introduction programme is also needed here, which is subject to competition law.
In this way on the one hand, the high initial investment expenditure for customers and end users will be reduced, and on the other, the feeding-in of efficiently generated electricity rewarded. In addition to this, technological further development, including in the area of production technologies, are also required to achieve cost targets.
Industrial applications
Fuel cell systems of a higher power class have similar advantages to home energy units and are currently being converted for initial applications. The multiplicity of possible uses - from shopping centres and industrial facilities to ships, together with the power capacity of the systems allow the overall installed output of the systems to be rapidly increased and become significantly important to the energy industry. A prerequisite to this is to overcome high costs. In addition decentralised CHP fuel cell systems - with an electrical output of up to 10 MW due to their high degree of electrical efficiency, their high overall efficiency rates, as well as their low degree of harmful emissions – have attractive market potential in a changing energy system characterised by increasingly decentralised optimised supply structures. In the case of high temperature fuel cells the usable heat also accumulates to a temperature level which facilitates the use of process heat, e.g. in the food industry on site.
Highly efficient fuel cell systems in decentralised and/or autonomous applications then make sense also when initially gas or other carbon hydrides are beings used as a fuel. Because of the high electrical efficiency, fuel consumption can be reduced by about 30%. Along with synthetic fuel cells from biomass or renewable energies, even further reduction of emissions is possible. The high fuel cell costs will be cushioned by the improved efficiency. Discarding components for emission reduction lowers the operational and investment costs. This is particularly significant for applications in ship-building and marine technology, in which Germany has a leading global position.
In the e4ships lighthouse project, the technological further development and testing of systems for power supply and heat/refrigeration supply on ships will be supported in particular. This will be accompanied by the launch of an initiative for the adjustment of framework conditions of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) for the use of gas on ships, etc., which ensures that particularly efficient products from Germany are supported in the future. Because of the high demand for power and heat in port operation first and foremost, the focus is on systems with a 500 kW capacity. Systems from 5 up to several 10 kW will be developed and demonstrated alongside for commercial buildings such as shopping centres.
The greatest challenges to commercial use so far are the high manufacturing costs of such systems. They have already been reduced by approx. 60% since 2003, and a further 30% is anticipated due to demand-related economies of scale. Demonstration projects on the megawatt scale can counteract uncertainties on the user side; a marketable development of further CHP capacities can be supported through an efficiency bonus for systems with high electricity efficiency.
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Message for me is the subsidies don't stop till market self sustaining. The IBZ website now features all units
http://www.ibz-info.de/content/modelle
•Baxi Innotech
•Buderus
•Ceramic Fuel Cells
•Elcore
•Hexis
•Vaillant
•Viessmann

Also it appears Kombkraftwerke2 has done very well:
http://www.h2bz-hessen.de/dynasite.cfm?dsmid=14677
"IWES study demonstrates network stability with renewable energy



Kassel, 04.11.2013 - electricity from 100 percent renewable energy - a research project takes critics who threaten blackouts, the wind from the sails. Contrary to popular belief network stability can be guaranteed even in wind and sunless periods when various renewable power plant forms are intelligently combined. A research team at the Fraunhofer IWES presented with project partners from industry and academia to the first results of the research project "Combined Power Plant 2" in Berlin. Renewable energy can provide control power During the presentation of the research was demonstrated in a live transmitted field test under real conditions that a network of renewable energy systems already provide control power and thus may contribute to the stability of the power system. In the field test, several wind farms, biogas and photovoltaic systems with a total output of more than 80 megawatts, were merged into a combined cycle power plant. This had to adapt to a real demand signal corresponding to the instantaneous frequency situation in the network and provide control power. "Our testing has shown not only that renewable energies to meet the necessary requirements for the control power supply, but that those with an adjustment period of a few seconds even react much faster than the conventional power plants," said Kaspar Knorr, project manager of the combined cycle power plant would be 2 "So that the renewable systems to perform their responsibilities better, they should be able to participate in the balancing energy market. For this, the conditions would have to be adjusted accordingly, "said Knorr on. too, with electricity from 100 percent renewable energies are no blackout feared the combined cycle power plant 2 renewable energy systems were controlled remotely from a central control room and the anticipated benefits of the coming minutes and hours estimated by continuous online power measurements and an accurate weather forecast. Depending on these estimates, the current production can be reduced or increased by the fast-reacting biogas plants. "If renewable energies are combined and controlled in combined cycle power plants, they can cover any time the need to ensure a stable frequency and voltage in the grid along with Save", Dr. Kurt Rohrig, Deputy Director of the Fraunhofer IWES out as the most important outcome of the project. Blackouts are therefore not to be feared by 100 percent renewable energy. Prof. Dr. Clemens Hoffmann, Director of the Fraunhofer IWES, sees the progressive development of the electricity market and energy systems a challenge: "Given the fact that with the many different renewable producers and their natural fluctuations in production and new coupling possibilities between the areas of heat, electricity and transport the energy system becomes more complex, it is imperative that now intelligently structure: This is the energy technology of the next generation, transmission and storage technology into an independent domain. The results of the project demonstrate this in an impressive way. " Source: IWR
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