U.S. Residential & Small Business Fuel Cell Market

Small stationary fuel cells (residential, backup, remote and light commercial) may represent the fastest moving segment in the fuel cell industry. Some companies have pre-commercial products already available. These companies are Ballard, Plug Power, Avista, Hydrogenics, Fuel Cell Technologies, and GE Fuel Cell Systems.

The power output of residential systems can vary greatly, ranging from 0.5kW to 10kW. There are several reasons for this. In Japan, for example, where most systems under development are around 1kW, power consumption of households is lower, and most systems will operate in urban areas and provide power in parallel with the grid. In North America, where systems range in size from 3kW to 10kW, power consumption is much higher. In addition, bigger units are being developed to act as stand-alone power sources for remote homesteads.

So far as fuel choice is concerned, the majority of the systems run off natural gas, and a great number of system developers have development or distribution agreements with suppliers of natural gas. In Japan several gas utilities (including Tokyo Gas and Osaka Gas) are active in the development of reforming technology and the promotion of fuel cells, which should increase demand for gas. In North America a number of companies are also developing systems that run off other fuels, notably Idatech (methanol) and Plug Power (propane as well as natural gas).

The technical difficulties of designing fuel cells are simplified in stationary applications. Most, if not all, commercial fuel cells are currently stationary, albeit large scale (generating more than 50kW of electrical energy). There is, however, significant potential for smaller units in what is termed residential applications (typically below 50kW).