Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (CFCL) has signed a deal to develop a micro-combined heat and power (m-CHP) product for Japan, one of the world’s fastest growing markets for fuel cells.
CFCL and Paloma Industries Ltd. are to jointly evaluate and develop a m-CHP product by integrating CFCL’s fuel cell technology with Paloma’s home heating appliance. The two companies will initially test a CFCL NetGenPlus unit for 12 months in Japan.
The deal marks CFCL’s entry into the Asian market and will give the company a route to market through Paloma’s sales network. Paloma is a leading producer of gas appliances for residential and commercial applications and is one of the leading suppliers of home gas heating products in Japan, serving more than 10 million homes.
Japan represents a key market for CFCL. There are already over 2100 residential fuel cell systems installed in the country and the government is providing string support for fuel cells.
Under the agreement CFCL will supply Paloma with a NetGenPlus fuel cell unit in 2008. Paloma will operate the unit under real-world operating conditions for around 12 months, after which the two companies will design and develop an integrated m-CHP product to meet the specifications of the Japanese market.
The agreement supplements CFCL’s agreements with utilities and appliance partners in Europe, where the company recently reported that it had completed shipment of first units in the UK, France, Holland and Germany.
The Japanese government has set targets of generating 2.2 GW of power from stationary fuel cells by 2010, and currently provides a subsidy of up to JPY3.5 million per unit. It also has a long term funding and strategic programme to support the commercialization of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology.
The vast majority of residential fuel cells operational in Japan are based on proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell systems, which run on pure hydrogen. CFCL’s technology is SOFC-based, which can operate on natural gas and potentially other fuels.
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