E.ON's energy solutions business E.ON Connecting Energies, and Friatec,
which specialises in products made of non-corroding and wear-resistant
materials, have entered into a long-term energy partnership, starting with a
high-efficiency heat supply solution for Friatec's production plant in
Mannheim, Germany. E.ON will refurbish the existing heat infrastructure of
the Mannheim site and plans to build, own and operate Europe's first fuel
cell power plant of megawatt size.
The 1.4 MW fuel cell with an electrical efficiency of 47% will be
provided by FuelCell Energy Solutions. The unit will meet about
60% of the power needs of factory production processes. Overall, the solution will save Friatec up to 46% electrical energy each year, and it will lead to a CO2 reduction of approximately 3000 tons annually at the site.
E.ON and FuelCell Energy have agreed to collaborate to offer decentralised
combined heat and power solutions with fuel cell power plants up to
multi-megawatt-scale to existing and prospective customers.
Robert Hienz, CEO of E.ON Connecting Energies: "We are delighted to
install the first commercial MW-class fuel cell in Europe in an industrial
environment. This case shows how high-efficiency technologies can grow
mature and serve real customer needs, such as reducing CO2 emissions by
around 25%, and significantly cut energy cost as a production factor."
Klaus Wolf, CEO of Friatec: "Our production-processes require a large
amount of power and heat, so we are very happy to have the opportunity to
utilise fuel cells to generate these necessities as efficiently and as
cleanly as possible to advance our environmentally-friendly production
processes."
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