The plant, located in an existing 4200 m2 (45 200 ft2) building in the Industriepark Oberbruch, has a design capacity of 10 000 fuel cell stacks per annum. Ceramic Fuel Cell’s investment in the plant construction, including state-of-the-art automated manufacturing equipment, will total €9.5 million. All pieces of equipment have been commissioned on-site and are now operational.
To meet future growth the plant can be expanded to a capacity of up to 160 000 fuel cell stacks per year in the same building. The company also holds an option over a nearby parcel of land for future ‘green-field’ expansion.
Ceramic Fuel Cells makes fuel cell ‘modules’, which appliance companies can integrate into different products for many large global markets. The first products to be powered by the CFCL fuel cells will be the BlueGen compact generators for homes and other buildings that produce low-emission power as well as heat for hot water or space heating. These products will meet the growing need for energy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
‘Fuel cells with high efficiency are a key technology of the future, with significant economic potential,’ said Dr Jens Baganz, State Secretary for the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Energy in Nordrhein-Westfalen, at the official opening. ‘In Oberbruch it is now possible that a future industry can be developed. Given the global challenges of climate change, there are very promising market opportunities for fuel cell technology.’