EyeforFuelCells Europe 2001
The Business of Fuel Cells
for Stationary Applications
Brussels, 27-28 November
Event Overview
EyeforFuelCells' conference "The Business of Fuel Cells for Stationary Applications" ran to strong critical acclaim.The conference will run again October, 2002 in the USA (location tbc). Several of the speakers have already expressed a desire to speak at next year's event.
Please see below for a summary of the 2001 event.
Heinz Bergmann, project manager for Fuel Cell development at RWE AG, keynoted the event and provided a unique insight into the business strategy that RWE are employing and the relationships that they are building with several manufacturers both in Europe and the U.S. Jean-Louis Exbrayat, Head of Fuel Cells at Gaz de France, provided the perspective of one of Europe's largest gas distributors and explained the rational behind some of the decisions they had made; the Trans-Atlantic agreement with HPower being one of the most interesting.
Cost reduction was one of the overriding themes of the event and Jean-Marc Tixhon of DuPont demonstrated how, through use of six sigma tactics, DuPont had managed to reduce membrane costs by 50% over a one year period. Marcus Nurdin, Managing Director of The World Fuel Cell Council, estimated that the cost of Platinum for a PEM stack would shortly be as low as $50. The general opinion, supported by Denis MacDermot of Johnson Matthey, Jim Perry of Global Thermoelectric and Michael Scheefer of Alstom Ballard, was that cost per kW would have to be in the region of $1000 for stationary units to be commercially viable.
Darcy Nicholle, UTC Fuel Cells (formerly International Fuel Cells) gave several examples of the commercial success of their 200kW phosphoric acid unit retailing at $900,000. This was backed up by Allan Jones of Woking Borough Council, who explained how through "dilution economics" and private wire networks it had been possible for a local U.K. municipality to buy and deploy one of these units. Jim Perry of Global Thermoelectric further emphasised the possibility for SOFC stacks in off-grid locations. Global Thermoelectric already supply thermoelectric generators at a cost of $30,000 per kW in a $20 million in a year business. As they optimise the operating temperatures of their stack to maximise efficiency and stack life, they are also pushing forward on the business strategy front conducting market surveys with US utilities and propane distributors.
Zeljko Barisic of Alstom Ballard, demonstrated the results of their successful field trials for the Ballard PEM stack in CHP applications, emphasising the versatility of PEM stacks and also the need for developers to team up with large manufacturers.
Phil Doran, former head of fuel cell research at UBS Warburg, gave excellent advice for any small stack manufacturer looking for funding and virtually had to be dragged from the podium due to the amount of interest his presentation generated. Roland Jansen, who manages the DUX mutual trust explained exactly what he was looking for before committing to emerging fuel cell companies.
With Shell Hydrogen working on timelines based around 2050, Claude Duss of IdaTech demonstrated the strong business case for fuel reformers whilst Dr. Hugo Vandenborre, founder of Hydrogen Systems N.V., explained the value proposition of regenerative and reversible fuel cells in conjunction with other energy conversion devices.
Jean-Marie Bemtgen was unequivocal on the role of the European Commission in fuel cell commercialisation - funding would only be available at R&D level. The general outcome of the conference was that the technology now exists and that the major developers are now at worst at the field trial stage. The need for uniform codes and standards was also clearly expressed by a number of speakers.
In response to what is perceived as a lack of governmental support and cohesion across the European Community an ad hoc working group was formed. The group, hosted by the World Fuel Cell council and project managed by Jean-Marie Tixhon - DuPont met at Villars, Switzerland at the end of October.
Other members of the group include: RWE, Johnson Matthey, Daimler Chrysler, Alstom and Porvair. The results of this meeting, compiled by Phil Doran, were made public at the conference and outline a road map to commercial success for 2005 in Europe.
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