A GAS UTILITY APPROACH TO FUEL-CELL COMMERCIALIZATION

The most attractive application for fuel cells seems to be in decentralised combined heat and power generation (CHP). The market for energy efficient CHP is growing, partly as a result of the wish to decrease CO2 emissions. Gas utilities are facing this development and can react in different ways. One of these is to operate natural gas powered CHPs themselves. The attractiveness of fuel cell powered CHPs for gas utilities depends firstly on the economy and reliability of CHP in general in the markets considered and secondly on the competitiveness of fuel cells versus, for example, the gas engine and gas turbine based CHP. Important possible activities for a gas utility in relation to fuel cell commercialisation are helping develop the market for CHP, defining the requirements for fuel cells in CHP and helping the fuel cell manufacturers to build up practical experience by participating in demonstration projects. The situation in the Netherlands will be used for examples.