New Energies, new possibilities

UK fuel cell firm Ceres Power Holdings plc (LON:CWR) said today it has signed a contract with oil giant Shell Plc (LON:SHEL) for the design of a 10-MW pressurised solid oxide electrolyser (SOEC) module.

The aim of the contract is to develop a pressurised module design that can be scaled to hundreds of megawatts, for use in large-scale industrial applications such as synthetic fuels, ammonia and green steel.

UK fuel cell firm Ceres Power Holdings plc (LON:CWR) said today it has signed a contract with oil giant Shell Plc (LON:SHEL) for the design of a 10-MW pressurised solid oxide electrolyser (SOEC) module.

The aim of the contract is to develop a pressurised module design that can be scaled to hundreds of megawatts, for use in large-scale industrial applications such as synthetic fuels, ammonia and green steel.

The agreement expands Ceres’ collaboration with Shell, which started in 2022 and involved the deployment of a 1-MW SOEC system at Shell's research and development (R&D) facility in Bangalore, India.

Drawing on the 1-MW demonstration project, the partners seek to develop a commercially competitive and scalable solution. Ceres explains that SOEC technology offers efficiency gains, resulting in some 35% more hydrogen produced per unit of electrical energy when coupled with heat from industrial processes. The project targets a module level efficiency of less than 36 kWh/kg of hydrogen. This aligns to EU SOE 2030 technology targets, the company said.

The agreement expands Ceres’ collaboration with Shell, which started in 2022 and involved the deployment of a 1-MW SOEC system at Shell's research and development (R&D) facility in Bangalore, India.

Drawing on the 1-MW demonstration project, the partners seek to develop a commercially competitive and scalable solution. Ceres explains that SOEC technology offers efficiency gains, resulting in some 35% more hydrogen produced per unit of electrical energy when coupled with heat from industrial processes. The project targets a module level efficiency of less than 36 kWh/kg of hydrogen. This aligns to EU SOE 2030 technology targets, the company said.

Researchers at Stanford University in the United States and at the University of Mannheim in Germany have proposed using reversible fuel cells as backup power generators to cope with volatility in electricity markets and pronounced fluctuations in power prices.

“Reversible fuel cells can be an economically viable source of backup electricity during periods of surging prices, such as Texas experienced in 2021 when winter storms knocked out power plants fueled by natural gas,” the research's main author, Stefan J. Reichelstein, said, noting that reversible systems can help get economic value from renewable electricity when prices are low.

In the paper Reversible Power-to-Gas systems for energy conversion and storage, published in nature communications, Reichelstein and his colleagues developed an analytical model of the unit economics of the reversible fuel cell system. “While modular systems require sufficiently low hydrogen prices in order for the reversibility feature to be valuable, integrated systems can be economically viable for higher hydrogen prices by primarily generating hydrogen but also providing electricity during times of limited power supply,” the study reads.

Through the proposed model, which mainly considered the electricity markets in Germany and Texas, the research group found that fuel cell systems based on solid oxide cell (SOC) technology may be competitive at current hydrogen prices, provided that there is sufficient variation in daily electricity prices, as in the Texas market.

The reversible systems are said to be economically viable even in the presence of substantially lower hydrogen prices in the future. “This is because the inherent flexibility in these systems enables them to respond to lower hydrogen prices by operating more frequently in reverse mode, delivering additional electricity to the power markets,” the researchers said.

They also took into account the potential drop in costs for SOC fuel cells over the next 10 years and found that they may still be competitive even with substantially lower hydrogen prices. These systems may become particularly valuable during periods of electricity scarcity, including regular demand peaks and irregular supply shocks. “The reversible systems can be built to almost any scale, they add, so they can be used by individual companies or small communities as well as by large urban power grids,” Reichelstein concluded.

Reversible fuel cells for backup power generation – pv magazine International (pv-magazine.com)

국내 공식 최고 전기효율 52% 및 종합효율 99% 달성

미코파워(대표 하태형)는 자체 기술로 개발한 8kW급 고체산화물 연료전지(SOFC)시스템이 가스안전공사 설계단계검사(정밀검사)를 합격했다고 밝혔다.

이번 검사를 통과한 8kW SOFC시스템은 정격 전기효율 52%, 종합효율 99%로 국내 SOFC시스템 중 가장 높은 효율을 기록했다. 

SOFC시스템의 국내 상용기술은 수kW급에 머물러 있었으나 스택 모듈화기술을 기반으로 한 미코파워는 8kW급 상용시스템의 성능과 안전성을 공인받아 수백kW급 발전용시스템 기술 국산화가 가능하다.

미코파워는 SOFC 셀과 스택, 시스템까지 전주기 제조기술을 확보했으며, 2kW 상용 SOFC시스템을 출시한 이후 다수 스택을 연결해 고출력화하는 스택 모듈화 기술을 개발하고 있다. 4월 국내 최초로 2kW급 상용 SOFC시스템 KS인증을 획득했다.

하태형 미코파워 대표는 “공인받은 제품의 안정성과 신뢰성을 기반으로 수소연료전지 시장 수요증가에 적극 대응하고 다양한 국내외 파트너사들과 협력해 연료전지시장을 지속 확대해 나가겠다"고 말했다.

미코파워, 8kW SOFC 설계단계검사 첫 합격 - ::: 글로벌 녹색성장 미디어 - 이투뉴스 (e2news.com)

What happened 

Shares of hydrogen fuel cell company Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) fell 29.7% in October, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, as earnings were released. And this is just the latest volatile month for this renewable energy stock. 

So what 

A big reason for part of the drop was just that Bloom Energy's stock has skyrocketed since March. Shares are up 96% so far this year and nearly 400% from its March low, so it's still been an outstanding year for this renewable energy stock. 

Image source: Bloom Energy.

The two notable news items were paying off $249 million worth of 10% convertible promissory notes due 2021 and calling the outstanding $79 million on its 10% senior secured notes due 2024. This follows selling $230 million of 2.5% green convertible senior notes due 2025. 

Bloom Energy also released earnings for the third quarter of 2020, showing $200.3 million of revenue and a loss of $12.0 million. On the positive side, the operating margin improved from 2.7% a year ago to 7.7%, and adjusted EBITDA was $27.7 million.

Now what 

As bad as the stock performed last month, the operating news was fairly positive. Debt was refinanced at a much lower rate and Bloom Energy is EBITDA positive and slowly improving the bottom line. I chalk last month's move up to volatility for renewable energy stocks and see this as a buying opportunity for investors. 

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/11/08/why-bloom-energys-shares-plunged-297-in-october/

COLUMBUS, Ind.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI) has announced the company received two federal grants totaling $4.6 million to advance commercialization of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology, which could play a critical role in helping commercial and industrial customers reduce their carbon impact while providing energy resiliency and cutting costs.

SOFCs can convert fossil fuels into energy much more efficiently than combustion-based processes and can also use low- and no-carbon fuels such as hydrogen to generate power. They have the potential to be a bridge to a carbon-neutral future and much more.

“We need every tool we can get to address the world’s climate challenges and other environmental issues,” said Thad Ewald, Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Cummins. “Solid oxide fuel cells give our customers another way to achieve their environmental sustainability goals.”

SOFCs use a ceramic electrolyte to convert the energy in a fuel to power through a series of electrochemical reactions. With a continuous supply of fuel and oxygen, the fuel cells can be linked or stacked together to power a variety of applications.

Compared to combustion processes, SOFCs are capable of converting a significantly higher percentage of a fossil fuel’s energy into electricity while producing far less heat-trapping gases and emissions than an internal combustion engine using a petroleum-based fuel, or a coal-burning power plant.

Advocates envision a day in the near future when solid oxide fuel cells regularly power major energy users like data centers, removing them from an increasingly over-burdened electrical grid.

The grants from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will help fund two projects demonstrating SOFCs’ potential. A $2.6 million DOE grant will help Cummins build a 20 kilowatt (kW) small-scale SOFC power system at the University of Connecticut, fueled by natural gas but able to use multiple fuels. It will run 5,000 hours to demonstrate its durability.

That’s not a big enough SOFC system to power a data center but systems can be aggregated together to provide energy resiliency, security and availability, sufficient for not only data centers but other commercial and industrial applications and microgrids, too.

Cummins’ proposal calls for developing a system that would be available at a price point below $1,000/kW with the flexibility and robustness for use in smaller and larger systems. The proposal calls for testing to begin in 2021.

A second project funded with the help of a $2 million DOE grant will look at the cost, performance and reliability of a reversible fuel cell or R-SOFC. It can run as a traditional SOFC or as a solid oxide electrolyzer cell (SOEC) that can split steam to separate hydrogen and oxygen.

This increases Cummins’ already market leading portfolio of electrolyzers to generate hydrogen, including Proton Exchange Membrane and alkaline technologies. The DOE grant proposal calls for building on a Cummins proprietary thermal spray technology to develop an advanced metal substrate or surface resulting in a 50% cost reduction by using less metal and cutting processing costs.

Cummins is quickly emerging as the leader in SOFCs for commercial and industrial power. The company’s novel spray technology, for example, enables Cummins to achieve larger cells, higher power densities, increased reliability and lower costs. The company’s industry leading cell and stack size reduces system costs and complexity while providing a modular building block suitable for a variety of applications. The company also uses commodity stainless steel in its cells rather than more expensive and brittle ceramics used by some competitors.

The company’s work on SOFCs is consistent with PLANET 2050, Cummins’ environmental sustainability strategy adopted in 2019 to address climate change and other environmental issues. The strategy includes science-based goals aligned with the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius by the middle of the century.

Want to learn more about Cummins investments in SOFCs and other fuel cell technologies? Join company leaders including Chairman and CEO Tom Linebarger at 10:30 a.m. (EST) Nov. 16 for Cummins’ Hydrogen Day. Click here to register.

About Cummins Inc.

Cummins Inc., a global power leader, is a corporation of complementary business segments that design, manufacture, distribute and service a broad portfolio of power solutions. The company’s products range from diesel, natural gas, electric and hybrid powertrains and powertrain-related components including filtration, aftertreatment, turbochargers, fuel systems, controls systems, air handling systems, automated transmissions, electric power generation systems, batteries, electrified power systems, hydrogen generation and fuel cell products. Headquartered in Columbus, Indiana (U.S.), since its founding in 1919, Cummins employs approximately 61,600 people committed to powering a more prosperous world through three global corporate responsibility priorities critical to healthy communities: education, environment and equality of opportunity. Cummins serves its customers online, through a network of company-owned and independent distributor locations, and through thousands of dealer locations worldwide and earned about $2.3 billion on sales of $23.6 billion in 2019. See how Cummins is powering a world that’s always on by accessing news releases and more information at https://www.cummins.com/always-on.