Someone may like to correct me , but I don't believe Pem's are...

Someone may like to correct me , but I don't believe Pem's are practical for the purposes of peak load contribution?

As per the cfcl announcement

http://www.cfcl.com.au/Assets/Files/20120403_German-subsidy-April2012.pdf

from page 1
"This program is in addition to the existing German CHP Law, which requires that 25 percent of Germany’s
electricity generation comes from combined heat and power (small and large scale) by 2020."

And from the email I received from Andrew Neilsen from the company last month asking for information relating to waste heat from Fuel cells ( I obtained permission to post Andrews reply on the forum)

I’ve got some references from my German colleagues - the most relevant regulation against “dumping heat” is:

EU Directive 2004/8/EC, Article 3, includes the following definitions:

[…]
(b) ‘useful heat’ shall mean heat produced in a cogeneration process to satisfy an economically justifiable demand for heat or cooling;
(c) ‘economically justifiable demand’ shall mean the demand that does not exceed the needs for heat or cooling and which would otherwise be satisfied at market conditions by energy generation processes other than cogeneration;
[…]

Article 9:
[…]
(a) encouraging the design of cogeneration units to match economically justifiable demands for useful heat output and avoiding production of more heat than useful heat;
[…]

"The German CHP law (KWKG) refers to this EU Directive for the definition of useful heat (Nutzwärme) and specifies further that it can only be used for certain applications such as (space)-heating, hot water production, (industrial) process heat or cooling (absorption chillers) [KWKG, §3, Abs. 6]. Any other application, especially venting / wasting the heat, would result in a loss of funding and subsidies. [KWKG, §4, Abs. 4]

As a second point – regardless of regulation, the economics are against “wasting” heat - if the electrical efficiency is below 45-50% the input fuel is too expensive and the compensation is too little. High electrical efficiency delivers greater value.

Trust this helps. Happy for you to post."

A few remarks of my own

1) If 25% of power generation is to come from chp by 2020, then almost certainly they will be contributing to peak load reduction. Commercial and industrial chp will be able to contribute to this, as waste heat can be used. They can still operate in peak periods if the waste heat is not used, but the cost of electricity production is increased substantially due the waste heat component. This increase in cost is most apparent in PEM type cells and least apparent in SOFC cells.

2) If the objective of chp implimentation is a 1) a greener alternative to existing generation methods and 2) as a contributor of 25% of Germany's electricity production, the option of installing a PEM type cell becomes less attractive due the need of waste heat production in peak load times. Production of this waste heat will result in a loss of funding and subsidies as per the response above from Andrew Neilson.

3) With reference to points one and two above for a domestic installation, generation of waste heat (re PEM!) will result in loss of funding and subsidies, and the cost of electricity generation from a PEM at any given time where the waste heat cannot be used nullifies any efficiency or cost gains in the first place.

To sum up
Another poster (apologies for forgetting who?) mentioned it would appear the progression of policies in Germany relating to fuel cell implimentation, are more in favour towards manufacturers of SOFC cells.
If Germany can increase its subsidies in the same way Japan has , then CFU's product at this stage is a better choice for the consumer.

The Nov 2011 price of the Panasonic unit is about $30000 excluding installation.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Panasonic-s-Fuel-Cells-Guide-Japan-s-Steps-Towards-Energy-Independence-236165.shtml

comments welcome and in particular when Germany's peak periods occur?