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Ceres and Cummins Collaborate on Fuel Cells for Data Centers

December 20, 2016 by Jeff Shepard

Ceres Power Holdings plc announced its key development role in a recently selected US Department of Energy (DOE) program awarded to Cummins Inc.. Ceres Power will benefit from up to US$2.6m of the total US$4.9m project, which includes contributions from Cummins, US DOE and other parties, subject to final contract.

Ceres Power and Cummins will develop a novel 5kW Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC”) modular system targeting high electrical efficiency (60 percent) and scalable to meet multiple distributed power applications up to 100kW. The initial target application will be the data center market; however, wider applicability to other markets such as commercial combined heat and power will also be considered. Ceres Power’s unique Steel Cell offers greatly enhanced robustness to real-world operating conditions at a lower cost than conventional SOFC designs, as well as being fuel flexible, highly efficient and with lower emissions.

If successfully implemented into data centers, the Steel Cell will enable data center operators to cut current overall costs by more than 20 percent and reduce their carbon footprint by up to 49 percent. It has the potential to reduce world energy use significantly as data centers currently consume nearly two percent of the world’s electrical power.

The award is under the US DOE Funding Opportunity Announcement DE-FOA-0001469 titled “Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Innovative Concepts and Core Technology.” Ceres Power and Cummins will work closely with its consortium partners, University of Connecticut (UConn) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), one of the US DOE’s national laboratories, to test the system to validate its feasibility in the target applications.

Phil Caldwell, Ceres Power’s Chief Executive Officer commented: “This is a very exciting opportunity for Ceres Power to work with Cummins and the US DOE to address the rapidly growing market for cleaner distributed power for data centers and other commercial applications and strengthens our relationships in North America, a key market for our Steel Cell technology”

Wayne Eckerle, Cummins VP – Corporate Research and Technology added: “We are looking forward to working with Ceres Power, UConn, and PNNL to develop and ultimately commercialize this technology that can reduce costs for data centers and other potential customers while helping improve our environment. This is another example of technological collaboration that is a win for our companies, a win for our customers and a win for the environment.”

Ceres Power has also announced that the latest iteration of the SteelCell platform (version 4) has been released to customers on time and on budget, reinforcing the Company’s reputation for successfully executing against its technology roadmap. Higher power density and start-up timescales compatible with vehicle applications have been proven, making the platform increasingly commercially attractive in a growing number of markets.