The report is the U.S. Department of Energy’s ‘Fuel Cell Technologies Market Report 2014’ (http://dtn.fm/x5WCf), which casts a comprehensive eye on the global fuel cells industry. It estimates that the fuel cell industry almost doubled (69%) in 2014 to $2.2 billion from $1.3 billion in 2013, and that more than 50,000 fuel cells, totaling 180 megawatts (MW), were shipped in 2014. The report relates how the U.K.-based Western Standard Energy Corp. acquired Dominovas Energy, LLC (California), renamed the company Dominovas Energy Corporation, and moved its headquarters to Atlanta, Georgia. The Dominovas Energy Corporation (OTCQB: DNRG) is now making final provisions to manufacture the RUBICON™ SOFC system.
About 50 Fortune 500 companies use fuel cell technology to generate power for either stationary or motive applications. About half of these are in the Fortune 100. Fuel cell applications power forklifts, data centers, cell phone towers, and corporate or retail facilities. More than 2,500 fuel cells for material handling vehicles were ordered or installed in 2014, bringing the number of fuel cell-powered forklifts in North America to more than 7,500 units, located at more than 60 warehouses and distribution facilities in 20 states and Canada. Fuel cells can also be found in cars now. Commercial introduction of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) began in earnest in 2014 with Hyundai’s Tucson ix35 FCEV.
Cars aside, the flag bearer for the industry is South Korea, which ‘is embracing large-scale fuel cells for energy production in a way that few other countries can match’ (http://dtn.fm/D7nD9). A Bloomberg piece (http://dtn.fm/2iAlq) notes that there are opportunities for U.S. companies: ‘South Korea is tapping into U.S. ingenuity to drive the market for fuel cells… Conglomerates based in South Korea are buying, investing in or partnering with U.S. fuel-cell makers, seeking to build on their designs for the complex systems by incorporating cheaper production methods that will make them more economical.’
That fuel cell technology is feasible for large-scale grid operations is demonstrated by South Korea’s Fuel Cell Park. In February 2014, the Gyeonggi Green Energy facility, a 59-MW fuel cell complex in Hwasung City, South Korea, began operation. The plant consists of 21 2.8MW hydrogen fuel cells supplied by FuelCell Energy of Danbury, Connecticut.
Not to be outdone, the United States is powering on. Another Bloomberg story (http://dtn.fm/snKJ7), in January of this year, tells how the state of Connecticut has ‘approved a proposal for what would be the world’s largest fuel cell power plant.’ The ‘63.3-megawatt Beacon Falls fuel cell power plant in the state… would be bigger than the 59-megawatt fuel cell plant in operation in South Korea.’
This area is Dominovas Energy Corporation’s forte. The company has developed the industry’s first scalable, single megawatt SOFC system based on its Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) technology known as the RUBICON™. As Dr. Shamiul Islam, Dominovas Energy’s executive vice president of the fuel cell division, explains:
“Until now, all single megawatt systems of fuel cell generated power were comprised of an array of individual kilowatt units configured to function at a megawatt scale. The generally accepted configuration and design of megawatt systems within the industry to date have taken smaller configurations of the fuel cell stacks, generally 1kW, and pieced them together to create configurations totaling multiple kilowatts. This approach is problematic in that the generation of megawatt baseload power is inefficient and it additionally creates units that, by design, have multiple opportunities for failure which contribute to extraordinary and otherwise unnecessary repair and maintenance costs. In designing a true megawatt system, Dominovas Energy has optimized system size, production efficiency, and overall system performance and veracity.”
For more information, visit www.dominovasenergy.com
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