Ceres Power upbeat after year-long home fuel cell trial

Fuel cell developer Ceres Power Holdings has completed a successful year-long field trial using its SteelCell-enabled home power systems, it announced on Monday, as part of an EU-wide field trial of fuel cell technology, led by ene.field.

The AIM-traded company said the trials showed Ceres' technology offered a “reliable, deliverable” potential answer to the “looming gap” between energy demand and supply.

Residential prototypes of the technology - which generates power and heat - were said to have been successfully trialled in five family homes for a year in London and the South East.

As a technology that enabled end-users to generate their own power and heat reliably on-site at home or at work from the existing natural gas grid, Ceres said fuel cells were a “compelling” power generation option.

It said its SteelCell product was also “fuel-flexible”, running on natural gas today, and being hydrogen-ready if the gas grid is converted.

The trials illustrated that UK consumers could expect savings of around £400 per year on their energy bills by taking advantage of the ability of the SteelCell to provide the majority of their power and all of their hot water.

Ceres said that in a typical UK family home, the prototype units provided around 80% of the average household's electricity needs whilst saving up to 2 tonnes of CO2 per household, with near-zero harmful NOx and SOx emissions, which was the equivalent of taking a diesel car off the road for a year.

The data also reportedly demonstrated that end-users could generate most of the power needed for their home, and also export enough surplus power to charge a typical electric vehicle.

Additional annual savings of more than £1000 would be achieved if the technology gained government support through the UK's current feed-in tariff, Ceres added..

“These are very encouraging results which illustrate the huge potential of fuel cell technology. We know the grid is coming under ever increasing pressure,” said Ceres CEO Phil Caldwell.

“We also know that renewables only provide intermittent power.”

Caldwell said the trials had proven that the SteelCell could save consumers money, and generate power effectively emission-free.

“And they do so using the existing reliable gas network in the UK.

“The SteelCell offers a highly efficient and flexible answer, producing reliable power which will complement our growing reliance on renewables.”