Fuel cell mCHP to be widely available in European homes
Viessmann developed the fuel cell heat and power system with Panasonic for the domestic heating market. The Vitovalor 300-P is said to be the first mass-produced, commercially available fuel cell to be developed for domestic use in Europe. The system, comprising a fuel cell unit, peak load boiler and hot water tank, reduces CO2 emissions by 50% compared to the separate generation of heat and power.
The Vitovalor 300-P will go on sale in Germany this April, where there are purchase incentives as well as feed-in and export tariffs in place, as is also the case in Japan. It has already been MCS tested for the UK prior to trial installations later this Spring,
The UK launch is planned for 2015.
Managing director of Viessmann, Graham Russell, says, “It’s very exciting to be able to show our new Vitovalor 300-P fuel cell system at Ecobuild, proving that homeowners, industrial companies, installers, architects and specifiers can turn to Viessmann when it comes to future energy solutions. The domestic fuel product is here but we know that realistically, for it to be adopted in the UK, there will need to be incentives for end-users. By 2020 we expect a five-digit number of systems to be installed across Europe.”
Vitovalor 300-P operation
The heat produced by the power generation process of the Vitovalor 300-P is utilised for central and hot water heating. Delivering 19kW, the unit produces enough thermal output to cover the majority of the annual heat demand for a detached house. The integral gas condensing boiler starts automatically when the heat from the fuel cell module is insufficient, such as at peak times or when a lot of hot water is required for a brief period.
The Vitovalor 300-P is operated with hydrogen and air, where the hydrogen is derived from natural gas in a process upstream of the stack (reformer). Just like a gas boiler, the fuel cell requires a gas supply, a supply of combustion air and a flue.
The unit offers electrical efficiency that is twice as high as that offered by current CHP products – this reduces the heat extraction and makes the fuel cell particularly suitable for use in new build.
