The 9 manufacturers involved in ene.field (Baxi Innotech, Bosch, Ceres power , Dantherm power, Elcore, Hexis, RBZ, SOFC power and Vaillant ) will be deploying micro-CHP systems in real world situation within a range of European Households. Up to 1,000 systems will be deployed across 12 EU Member States and their performance will be evaluated over a 3 year period.
* These are the countries where units are currently expected to be installed. This may change as ene.field partners will also look to identify opportunities to deploy units in other European Countries.Two fuel cell technologies will be included in the trials:
- high and low temperature PEM and
- intermediate and high temperature SOFC
Both technologies have been proven to operate at high efficiency and promise strong potential to deliver carbon emissions reductions from household energy consumption. For more details on the benefits of the technology please see the “benefits” section).
Technical characteristics of the systems to be deployed through ene.field**
The systems will be monitored with state-of-the-art monitoring equipment that will feed valuable data into a series of important analytical studies, including: technical and performances analysis, lifecycle cost assessment and environmental impact assessment.
This will allow the project to deliver an evidence-based cost and environmental performance analysis, to be used to accelerate the adoption of the technology, encourage policy support from governments and facilitate the establishment of new channels to market.
The key objectives of the field trials are to:
- demonstrate the complete route to market for fuel cell micro-CHP products, including an approach to installation, support in the field and mechanisms for interacting with the building owners (the ultimate customers for the products);
- establish baseline energy demand data from the end-user prior to product installation (for example through measurement or billing data) and performance data for the duration of the trial (on a short time step basis);
- capture issues and lessons learned from the trial to help evaluate fuel cell micro-CHP in Europe;
- capture any issues encountered, in order for the manufacturers involved in each trial to better optimise their future CHP product designs;
- establish co-operation between the manufacturers involved, to share experiences and lessons learned.