SUCCESSFUL STEELCELL™ TRIALS SHOW REDUCED ENERGY COSTS AND LOWER EMISSIONS FOR UK HOMES
- 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.
Ceres Power Holdings plc (LON:CWR), a world-leading developer of low cost, next generation Fuel Cells, 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.
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 fuelflexible, 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.
