H Power Corp. (Clifton, NJ) announced that Kamata Inc. (Japan), a leading propane distributor, has installed and is field testing one of H Power's 4.5kW residential cogeneration units (RCUs) at Kamata's Gotenba employee facility in Gotenba-city, Japan. The installation marks the first field test of a propane-powered proton-exchange membrane (PEM) system for an actual load in the Japanese residential market.
The propane-powered unit is being used to provide the electricity, heat and hot water requirements of a home owned by Kamata for the use of its employees. Kamata will field test this unit and provide all the test data to H Power to assist in completing the development of a commercial version of the RCU for Kamata's customer base.
H. Frank Gibbard, CEO of H Power, stated, "These field tests by Kamata further strengthen our presence in the Japanese marketplace. We are proud that the H Power RCU is the first-ever propane-powered PEM fuel cell system being field tested in a real-life application in Japan. Customer feedback from field tests, such as the Kamata unit, is essential to the development of next-generation designs for the commercial market in Japan."
