Fuel cell based micro CHP units in homes and commercial buildings could provide vital network services to the electricity grid. These services can help the electricity grid assimilate more renewables according to the latest ene.field project report published 10/11/2015. The report stresses the need to create a market for electricity services to draw new technologies such as micro CHP into wider use and accelerate the cost reduction needed for general consumer uptake.

The Position Paper on Smart Grid Capabilities produced by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) along with other partners of the ene.field project highlights how, as the European electricity mix moves towards a higher share of intermittently generated electricity, the generated energy increasingly does not correspond to patterns of consumption. This creates a need for technologies such as fuel cell micro CHP (FC micro-CHP), which produces both heat and electricity simultaneously and can help compensate for the induced electricity fluctuations.

In order to reach a commercial position, the report points out both the challenges and opportunities that remain for FC micro-CHP technology. It explains that in order to realise its potential, the technology depends both on having access to a robust electricity services market and on the manufacturers progressively reducing the product costs to make the product accessible to a wider consumer group.

Please click here to download the report.

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