Utilities and their investments in fuel cells

Fuel cells are tested on a large scale by utilities around the world. Most of the interest is shown, for obvious reasons, in Europe, the USA and Japan. However, there are still very few fuel cells purchased under normal commercial conditions by the utilities, even though there is a considerable interest from different utilities to introduce fuel cell technology. There are a number of reasons for this, one of the most obvious being the qualified benefits for fuel cells enabling production of electricity with a minimum of emissions along with a reasonably high electricity efficiency. In competition with fuel cells, there are a number of existing technologies under development. One must have in mind that all technologies develop when in competition. The utilities, whoever they may be in the future, look for devices with high electric efficiency and low emissions. Thus, their interest in fuel cells may extend towards a combination of fuel cells and advanced gas turbines, giving a high electrical efficiency, far higher than could be expected from competing technologies today. In the long term there may also be opportunities to consider alternative fuels such as gasified biomass and/or coal to be used in fuel cells. In the further long term, hydrogen may be a fuel to be introduced on a large scale, perhaps becoming the real breakthrough for fuel cell technology. The market for different technologies, including fuel cell technology, will continue to change, as do the actors in the market. As a number of new actors may show up in the market, it is difficult to predict who the purchasers will be in the future. All actors, however, will have the same view on the technologies to be used; technical, economical and environmental benefits must be shown. The above-mentioned factors and parameters will be addressed in the paper, viewing also the fact that new technologies, when introduced, almost always have to show more benefits than existing technologies.