Ceres Power Holdings plc (LON:CWR), a world-leading developer of low cost, next generation Fuel Cells, announced today that it has completed a successful year long field trial using SteelCell™ enabled home power systems as part of an EU-wide field trial of Fuel Cell technology, led by ene.field. The trials show Ceres’ technology offers a reliable, deliverable potential answer to the looming gap between energy demand and supply.
· Successful trials show Ceres’ SteelCell™ is a reliable technology that will enable households to reduce their energy costs by £400 and carbon emissions by up to 2 tonnes per year.
· Home units also generated enough surplus power to meet a typical Electric Vehicle’s charging requirements.
· The ability to generate power at home or at work can alleviate future demands on the power system.
Residential prototypes of the technology which generates power and heat, were successfully trialled in five family homes for a year in London and the South East. As a technology that enables end-users to generate their own power and heat reliably, on site at home or at work from the existing natural gas grid, Fuel Cells are a compelling power generation option. Ceres Power’s SteelCell™ is also fuel-flexible, running on natural gas today, but is also 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. In a typical UK family home, the prototype units provide 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, the equivalent of taking a diesel car off the road for a year.
The data also demonstrated that end-users can generate most of the power needed for their home, and also export enough surplus power to charge a typical Electric Vehicle (EV). Additional annual savings of over £1000 would be achieved if the technology gained government support through the UK’s current Feed-in Tariff.
Huge increases in demand on the power grid, driven primarily by a rise in EVs require new innovative energy solutions, or the UK faces the prospect of power shortages. The National Grid’s own recent Energy Scenarios1 report predicted the number of EVs could reach 9 million by 2030, up from 90,000 today. As a result peak demand could be as much as 8GW higher in 2030. Furthermore, Data Centres, driven by the exponential rise of Cloud Computing and Connected Devices, already account for 3% of the world’s total power consumption and this is growing fast.
Decentralised energy generation offered by Ceres’ SteelCell™ technology, is critical to meeting future energy needs. With fossil-fuel power stations in the process of being phased out and, with the accelerating deployment of renewables, the emerging, transitional energy system will struggle to deliver against global energy demand. Ceres is already working with global OEMs including Honda, Nissan and Cummins, to embed the SteelCell™ technology into power systems for homes, businesses, as well as Data Centres and EVs.
Phil Caldwell, CEO of Ceres Power Holdings Plc, said: “These are very encouraging results which illustrate the huge potential of fuel cell technology. We know the grid is coming under ever increasing pressure. We also know that renewables only provide intermittent power. These trials have proven that the SteelCell can 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.”
