Overview of the current small stationary fuel cell market in North America
Small stationary fuel cells (residential, backup, remote and light commercial) may represent the fastest moving segment in the fuel cell industry. Some companies have pre-commercial products already available. These companies are Ballard, Plug Power, Avista, Hydrogenics, Fuel Cell Technologies, and GE Fuel Cell Systems.
The power output of residential systems can vary greatly, ranging from 0.5kW to 10kW. There are several reasons for this. In Japan, for example, where most systems under development are around 1kW, power consumption of households is lower, and most systems will operate in urban areas and provide power in parallel with the grid. In North America, where systems range in size from 3kW to 10kW, power consumption is much higher. In addition, bigger units are being developed to act as stand-alone power sources for remote homesteads.
So far as fuel choice is concerned, the majority of the systems run off natural gas, and a great number of system developers have development or distribution agreements with suppliers of natural gas. In Japan several gas utilities (including Tokyo Gas and Osaka Gas) are active in the development of reforming technology and the promotion of fuel cells, which should increase demand for gas. In North America a number of companies are also developing systems that run off other fuels, notably Idatech (methanol) and Plug Power (propane as well as natural gas).
The technical difficulties of designing fuel cells are simplified in stationary applications. Most, if not all, commercial fuel cells are currently stationary, albeit large scale (generating more than 50kW of electrical energy). There is, however, significant potential for smaller units in what is termed residential applications (typically below 50kW).
Table of Contents
1 Overview of the current small stationary fuel cell market in North America
1.1 Types of Small Stationary Power (Sub 10 kW)
Key Terminology
1.1.1 Residential Power
1.1.2 Light and Small Commercial
1.1.3 Backup and UPS
1.1.4 Remote Power
1.1.5 Auxiliary Power
1.2 Types of Fuel Cell Technologies for Small Stationary Applications
1.2.1 Technologies Used
1.2.2 Standards Making Bodies
Standards Organizations
Other Important Organizations
Code Certification Organizations
1.2.3 Key Members of Standard Making Bodies
1.2.4 Standards, Codes and Specifications
Summary of Related Codes and Standards
Details of Codes and Standards for Fuel Cell Manufacturers
Codes and Standards for the Installation of Fuel Cells
Application Permits
1.2.5 Predictions on Future Decisions of Standards Making Bodies
US Fuel Cell Council
1.3 Legislative and Regulatory Issues Impacting Small Stationary Fuel Cells
1.3.1 US Government Policies and Programs Impacting the Development and
Deployment of Small Stationary Fuel Cells
Summary of the DOE February 2003 Report
DOE and SECA
Government and Private Industry Summary
State Government Involvement in Fuel Cell Commercialization
1.3.2 Budget for Activities
1.3.3 Potential for Small Stationary Fuel Cells
2 Commercialization and Marketing Strategies
2.1 When will Small Stationary Fuel Cells be Commercialized?
2.1.1 Approaches to Commercializing Small Stationary Fuel Cell Technologies
2.1.2 Who has the Leading Technologies?
2.1.3 Target Markets
2.1.4 Current Small Stationary Fuel Cell Prototypes and Prototype Testing
Residential Market and Strategic Partner Testing
2.2 How will the Companies Market their Fuel Cells?
2.2.1 Strategies for Commercialization
2.3 Distributions and Support
2.3.1 Plans for Distributing Products
2.3.2 Maintenance and Support
2.3.3 Types of Fuels Supported
Fuel Supply Infrastructure
2.4 Strategic Alliances
2.4.1 Utility Companies
2.4.2 Distributors and Retailers
2.4.3 Manufacturing
2.4.4 International Partnerships
3 Small Stationary Fuel Cell Market Size and Forecast
USA: Residential Market
USA: Small Business Market
CANADA: Remote Sites Market
Total Small Stationary Fuel Cell Market for North America
Total Market Share of Small Stationary Fuel Cells by Technology
Market Share of Sales Channels in North American
Revenues of Fuel Cells in North America
4 Small Stationary Fuel Cell Company Activities
4.1 Vendors Summary
Target Applications and Markets R&D Firms
Target Applications and Markets Production Stage Firms
Region Targeted by R&D Companies
Regions Targeted by Production Stage Companies
Commercialization Stage by Company and Technology
Technology, Application and Target Market
4.2 Small Stationary Fuel Cell R&D Companies Activity
Acumentrics
Apollo Energy Systems, Inc.
Astris Energi Inc.
Dais-Analytics
Fuel Cell Technologies Ltd.
Global Thermoelectric Inc
Hydrogenics Corporation
Metallic Power
Mosaic Energy
Nuvera Fuel Cells
Proton Energy Systems
siGEN Ltd. (formerly ReGen Tech Ltd.)
Sulzer Hexis Ltd.
UTC Fell Cells
4.3 Small Stationary Fuel Cell Production Stage Companies Activity
Avista Labs
Ballard Power Systems Inc.
GE Fuel Cell Systems (GE Distributed Power)
IdaTech, LLC
Plug Power Inc.
4.4 Case Study on Osaka Gas and Tokyo Gas
4.4.1 Osaka Gas Co Ltd.
4.4.2 Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd.
5 Summary Analysis
5.1 Fuel Cell Technologies Which Will Most Likely Succeed
5.1.1 Reasons for Success
5.2 Future Direction of the Technologies
SOFC
PEM
5.3 Next Generation Systems to be Developed and Reasons
5.4 Most Successful Vendors and Analysis
5.5 Most Important Standards
5.6 Most Promising Applications and Analysis
Distributed Generation
Residential
Remote Applications
5.7 Growth Prospects of the Applications
Distributed Generation
Cost and Efficiency
Fuels
The DOE's Assessment of a Fuel Cell Future
Appendix
Glossary
Characteristics of Most Common Types of Fuel Cells
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