New Energies, new possibilities

Bosch's contribution to the energy transition: Decentralized and environmentally friendly power generation

• Future-oriented: electricity production at Wernau plant with three fuel cell units based on SOFC technology
• Flexible: operation with hydrogen, biogas or natural gas possible
• Tailor-made: reliable and scalable small power plants from Bosch production

Bosch is opening a new chapter in the energy transition: At the Bosch training center in Wernau, Germany, a fuel cell pilot installation based on SOFC technology, short for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell, is launched. The system consists of three fuel cell devices for stationary applications, which supplement the existing power supply of Wernau plant in a CO2-saving manner and drive the further development of these decentralized energy system

Franz Untersteller, Baden-Württemberg's State Minister for the Environment, Climate, and Energy, Andreas Schwarz, Member of the Baden-Württemberg Parliament, and Armin Elbl, mayor of Wernau, were among those who accepted Bosch Thermotechnology’s invitation to attend the official inauguration ceremony.
"As you see, Bosch has recognized the enormous economic potential associated with hydrogen and fuel cell technology, both in the mobility sector and in the field of stationary energy supply. And that's not all: With hydrogen, the economic prospects complement the ecological benefits wonderfully. This technology is a key technology for climate protection," explained Franz Untersteller during the event.

Fuel cell devices from Bosch with a wide range of applications

The development of these novel fuel cell systems was only made possible by close cooperation between the Bosch Corporate Research, Powertrain Solutions, and Thermotechnology divisions. Further SOFC pilot installations for testing and validation are located at the Bosch sites in Bamberg, Homburg, Renningen, and Schwieberdingen. Demonstration facilities are also planned in Stuttgart-Feuerbach and Salzgitter.

From 2020, the Bosch Group locations worldwide will no longer leave a CO2 footprint. The further development of the solid oxide fuel cell as an efficient and sustainable energy system also plays an important role in this respect, reports Uwe Glock, chairman of the board of management of Bosch Thermotechnology: "The energy transition can only succeed if we invest in sustainable, renewable energies over the long term. For Bosch, the highly efficient fuel cell is therefore an important contribution to the reliability of supply and flexibility of the energy system of the future.”

Focus on CO2 reduction: Operation with hydrogen, eco/biogas or natural gas

With the recently adopted hydrogen strategy of the Federal Government, hydrogen will become an important energy carrier of the future.

The SOFC fuel cell can be operated flexibly with hydrogen, eco/biogas, or natural gas: "The gradual switch to hydrogen as an energy carrier over the next few years makes the stationary fuel cell particularly future-proof in terms of achieving climate targets," explains Dr. Wilfried Kölscheid, head of the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell project at Bosch.

Compared to the electricity mix in Germany, a SOFC fuel cell system saves up to 40 percent in CO2 emissions, even when operated with natural gas. If the fuel cell is operated with hydrogen or ecogas, there are no direct CO2 emissions at all. A single SOFC unit with a power output of 10 kW can cover the annual electricity demand of more than 20 four-person households. At Wernau plant, this means that the energy requirements of an industrial building within the plant can be almost completely covered by the three fuel cell units.

"With the SOFC pilot installation in Wernau, Bosch is demonstrating that a reliable, environmentally friendly and flexible energy supply can be guaranteed decentrally by systems such as the fuel cell," reports Uwe Glock. "The installation underlines our efforts to drive forward the energy transition and the associated mitigation of climate change in all energy and heating solutions from Bosch," adds Wilfried Kölscheid.

SOFC devices with an overall efficiency of more than 85 percent

In a purely electrochemical process, oxygen ions pass through a thin ceramic electrolyte from an anode to the cathode in the SOFC fuel cell, where they react with hydrogen to form water. This produces electricity with an efficiency of more than 60 percent. The additional heat generated can be used to supply heating and hot water systems via a heat exchanger. With this dual use, an overall efficiency of more than 85 percent is achieved for SOFC devices.

Tags: fuel cell, climate action, Wasserstoff

More information

Technical Contact:
Dr. Markus Ohnmacht M/PJ-SOFC
Telefon: +49 711 811-30926

Journalist Contact:
Anne Kaletsch TT/COM
+49 6441 418 1797

https://www.bosch-presse.de/pressportal/de/en/bosch-eroeffnet-wasserstofffaehige-brennstoffzellen-pilotanlage-am-standort-wernau-214400.html

YOKOHAMA, Japan, July 31, 2020 – (JCN Newswire) – Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. (MHPS), a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group, announced on April 24, 2020, that it will change its name to “Mitsubishi Power, Ltd.” in conjunction with the transfer of shares in MHPS held by Hitachi, Ltd. to MHI. The date of the company name change, which was not fixed at that time, is on the schedule below.

Since its founding, MHPS has steadily improved its strength in three core areas: technology, comprehensive engineering, and after-sales servicing so as to respond to the needs of customers and society. The Company also continues to successfully achieve global business expansion. In this way, the Company is able to provide products of superlative quality and reliability, deliver projects around the world, and consistently meet user needs.

Under its new name, Mitsubishi Power, as one of the core subsidiaries of MHI Group, offers cutting-edge technologies and energy solutions for the power industry, supporting affordable and reliable power supplies in regions throughout the world. Further, by providing world-leading technologies, Mitsubishi Power is a key participant in creating a decarbonized, sustainable economy, helping to solve the challenges facing our global society.

Date of the Change of Company Name: September 1, 2020

Group Companies: The names of some Group companies in China and India, which had not been determined previously, have been decided as shown in the attachment.

See MHPS’ Group Companies Name: https://www.mhps.com/news/pdf/20200731.pdf

About Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd.
Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. (MHPS), headquartered in Yokohama, Japan, is a joint venture formed in February 2014 by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and Hitachi, Ltd. integrating their operations in thermal power generation systems and other related businesses. MHPS today ranks among the world’s leading suppliers of equipment and services to the power generation market, backed by 100 billion yen in capital and approximately 20,000 employees worldwide. The Company’s products include GTCC (gas turbine combined-cycle) and IGCC (integrated coal gasification combined-cycle) power plants, gas/coal/oil-fired (steam) power plants, boilers, generators, gas and steam turbines, geothermal power plants, AQCS (air quality control systems), power plant peripheral equipment, digital solutions and solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFC).

For more information, please visit www.mhps.com.

https://www.powermag.com/press-releases/mhps-to-change-company-name-to-mitsubishi-power/

Ceres Power PLC (LON:CWR) can be worth five times its current value if full advantage is taken of the opportunities now opening up says broker Berenberg - a huge fan of the fuel cell specialist.

Investor interest in the hydrogen and fuel cell sector has moved beyond how the technology works, adds the broker and is now focused on competitive dynamics, market opportunities and electrolysis.

In this scenario, Ceres offers one of the best opportunities for equity investors, argues Berenberg.

The AIM-listed group has leading solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology, a roster of global OEM partners and numerous upcoming near-term catalysts, it adds.

Berenberg has analysed the market and believes as industries seek to decarbonise and electrification needs increase, several winners will emerge with Ceres at the forefront of SOFC adoption.

SOFCs have a huge opportunity given their higher operating efficiency and ability to better address markets such as steel, where alternatives such as proton exchange membrane (PEM) and alkaline versions are less suited.

In numerous business segments, Ceres screens very favourably, Berenberg says, particularly in stationary power applications and based just on existing partnerships it estimates an addressable market of 500GW.

In revenue terms, that amounts to a more than £950mln a year opportunity or 32 times this year’s forecast.

New areas such as rail, shipping and electrolysis are all sources of additional potential upside, adds the broker.

On a modestly favourable penetration rate of SteelCell in the stationary power market, Berenberg gets to a price target of 580p, but full penetration moves the number to 2,000p or 400% upside.

'Buy' is its investment view

Shares rose 5% to 451p

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/LON:CWR/Ceres-Power-Holdings-PLC/

Solid-oxide-fuel-cell manufacturer Bloom Energy is entering the commercial hydrogen market by introducing hydrogen-powered fuel cells and electrolyzers that produce renewable hydrogen.

These products will be first introduced to the South Korean market in 2021 through an expanded partnership with SK Engineering and Construction (SK E&C), an affiliate of SK Group.

Bloom’s technologies can be critical in enabling South Korea to execute on its government-mandated Hydrogen Economy Roadmap. Bloom’s existing partnership with SK E&C has already sold 120 megawatts (MW) of fuel cells in South Korea, generating more than $1 billion in equipment and future services revenue for Bloom.

The Bloom Energy Servers are a proven market leader in clean, reliable, and resilient on-site power. This expansion of our product offering enables zero-carbon electricity and transportation solutions. Innovation and execution are fundamental tenets of our business and we are excited about the opportunity to advance the hydrogen economy with our long-time partner, SK E&C.

—KR Sridhar, founder, chairman, and CEO of Bloom Energy

Bloom Energy announced in June 2019 that its fuel cells could run on hydrogen to generate zero-carbon electricity. By the end of 2020, Bloom expects to ship a 100 kW pilot server to South Korea to power an SK E&C facility in early 2021. The second phase, a 1 MW hydrogen server installation, is targeted for a 2022 deployment. Both companies have committed to fund and to resource these two phases fully.

Our three-year collaboration with Bloom Energy has reinforced to us our view that Bloom’s fuel cell technology is the best in the world. Given the Korean government’s ambitious directive of deploying 15,000 MW of fuel cells by 2040, we forecast to sell 400 MW per year of fuel cells in the future.

—Jason Ahn, CEO of SK E&C

Bloom Energy’s core technology is based on research done by its founders on using electricity generated by a solar panel to produce fuel and oxygen on planet Mars for NASA. Bloom Energy Servers reversed this process by taking in fuel and air to generate electricity. Bloom is capitalizing on this technology by taking terrestrial renewable power and producing hydrogen using solid oxide electrolyzers. The renewable hydrogen, when produced in this manner, can fuel cars, power resilient AlwaysON Microgrids, or be injected into natural gas pipelines to reduce carbon emissions.

SK Group is the leading oil and gas provider in South Korea with 3,400 gas stations. The South Korean government’s roadmap requires the construction of 1,200 filling stations to fuel 6.2 million hydrogen cars by 2040. Bloom’s electrolyzers would allow SK to play a vital role in helping to meet these targets.

—Jason Ahn

Since 2002, Bloom has been awarded 19 patents for its solid oxide electrolyzer technology. Over time, it has improved the efficiency and aggressively reduced the cost of its products and expects this trend to continue. This, combined with the rapidly reducing cost of bulk solar and wind intermittent power, could make the hydrogen generated with Bloom electrolyers reach the US Department of Energy’s goal of gasoline price parity faster than other technologies.

Generating low-cost hydrogen from intermittent renewables is a sine qua non for decarbonization. Solid oxide electrolyzers hold the greatest potential to generate low-cost green hydrogen because of their superior efficiency, rapidly declining costs, and scalability. Achieving zero emissions in many sectors will depend upon making massive amounts of renewable hydrogen. Because Bloom is the market leader in solid oxide technology, I am very encouraged by this announcement.

—Jack Brouwer, professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center (NFCRC) at the University of California, Irvine

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/07/20200720-bloom.html

東京ガス・千住テクノステーション（東京都荒川区）で試験運転しているＳＯＦＣシステム

東京ガスは発電効率６５％と業界最高水準の高効率の固体酸化物形燃料電池（ＳＯＦＣ）を２０２０年代前半に商用化する。出力は５キロワットで、コンビニや商業店舗、事務所など小規模施設向けの電源を想定。電気料金の節約や二酸化炭素（ＣＯ２）排出削減が可能なほか、災害時の停電でも自立運転して発電を継続できる点などを訴求する。将来は５０キロ―１００キロワット級の中大型の開発も視野に入れる。

千住テクノステーション（東京都荒川区）で２台の試験運転を開始し、７月からはガスの科学館（同江東区）と田町スマートエネルギーセンター（同港区）でも１台ずつ試験運転を始める。実証試験を通じて耐久性や信頼性を評価。運用上の課題なども洗い出し、知見を積み重ねる。

高効率ＳＯＦＣは、業務用燃料電池で実績のある三浦工業と共同で商品化する。森村ＳＯＦＣテクノロジー（愛知県小牧市）のセルスタックを採用し、東京ガスが独自開発した高効率化技術をもとに商品化する。この技術は、１段目のスタックで発電した後の余剰のガスを再生して２段目のスタックに利用するもので、投入した燃料をより多くの発電に利用できる。部品選定やシステム簡素化などでコストダウンも図る。

ＳＯＦＣを巡っては、大阪ガスなどが家庭用燃料電池で発電効率５５％の製品を４月に発売。三菱日立パワーシステムズも出力２２０キロワットで発電効率５５％の製品を投入している。発電効率６５％は、これら既存のＳＯＦＣを大きく上回る。

東京ガスは、熱の需要が少ない中小規模施設には燃料電池システムを、ホテル、病院、工場などの大規模施設にはガスエンジン・タービン式のコージェネレーション（熱電併給）システムをそれぞれ提案し、市場全体をカバーしていく考えだ。現在は出力５キロワットのＳＯＦＣの商品化を進めているが、将来は店舗や事務所よりも大きな施設の需要もまかなえる出力５０キロ―１００キロワットクラスの開発も目指す。

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