sweet spot for ceramic fuel cells

Essentially it seems to talk about old news but recognises the merits of the various companies and the technologies associated. Looks very much like the author has a sweet spot for Ceramic Fuel Cells quoting the recent interview with Andrew Nielson on Stockopedia (third from last paragraph reads in CFU favor). A link at the foot of page.

Bloom Energys solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology has been the cause of much discussion since it was first introduced in February 2010. The Bloom Box is a device designed for use as a personal power station, generating green electricity to individually power a building. As only big businesses are currently in the process of testing this innovative apparatus, sceptics are cautious if this device will ever really come to full fruition for every day public use.

Bloom Energy has been perfecting this individualised power station, said to provide clean, reliable and affordable fuel cells, for the last eight years. However, the development was kept somewhat secretive. Major players like Walmart, Coca Cola, eBay, FedEx and Google stand on Bloom Energys side, as the first to test the boxs capabilities. According to John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, five boxes were installed, and over the period of nine months have already saved the company more than $100,000 in electricity costs. �ts been very successful thus far, said Donahoe in an interview. In addition, Bloom Energy has helped Google reach its economic and environmental goals. From a 400KW installation, in the first 18 months, the project has had 98% availability and delivered 3.8 million KWh of electricity. While the device has only been available on a commercial scale, according Stu Aaron, Bloom Energy Vice President of Marketing and Product Management, Bloom has more than 30 boxes in commercial deployment. The servers will be available on a residential scale within five to ten years.

As far as competition goes, Aaron said, We believe that ultimately there will be a lot of technologies helping us address the worlds many energy challenges.
ClearEdge Power, a U.S. based company, sells green electric power systems to California homes, schools and small businesses. The ClearEdge 5 operates on a much smaller scale than the Bloom Box, and combines SOFC with pure hydrogen fuel that is less expensive to produce. Michael Upp, VP of Marketing, doesn't consider the Bloom Box competition due to the differentiation of sizes the Bloom Box is a 100 KW system, which is around 20 times more than the ClearEdge 5. There are definitely other companies out there making fuel cells, but most of them the ones that really work are way bigger than ours. With 91 percent efficiency, delivering not only power but heat as well, this system has proven to be quite successful since its launch in November 2009. Upp says, Weve had very positive feedback. We have orders for over 250 systems, we have installed about 25 systems, and in the pipeline we have orders for probably well over 500 systems.

The Australian company, Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited, has developed a small scale generator of electricity called BlueGen, with 2KW maximum output and up to 60% electrical efficiency. According to Andrew Neilson, General Manager, As far as we know, this is the highest electrical efficiency of any small scale generating technology, including any other fuel cells. BlueGen not only generates highly efficient power, but optional heat as well. The device has an integrated heat exchanger to recover heat from the fuel cell module, and the option of attaching a water tank as well. The BlueGen is sold and installed in Australia, Germany and Japan. This device also operates on a much smaller scale than the Bloom Box, and therefore the two are not necessarily competing. Neilson explains, Fuel cells are a bit like batteries: a watch battery is different to a car battery, and they are not easily scaled up or down.

Oorja Protonics uses a fuel cell technology with methanol, delivering 4.5MW of clean electricity. For use on a larger scale, several devices can be connected to generate more no-emission electrical power. This device will also offer heat for no cost to customers. The Oorja Protonics model three can be used for powering homes, offices, farms, backup power, and can even be used to power forklifts. The model 1 version offers 1MW, and powers just forklifts customers include Nissan and McDonalds.

What about SOFC technology for a power station that has the capability of powering a whole community or larger? The Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA), a group consisting of industry professionals, scientists and the U.S. government, is devoting much time and energy to seek out ways to produce SOFC that could potentially be used at a very large level. The group is currently in the process of inventing a cost-effective prototype, which will use a technique for mass-producing SOFC with 250KW to 1MW of energy.

http://www.energydigital.com/industry-focus/global-operations/bloom-energy-personal-power-stations

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