Business trend of the smart house market
(5/8)
Residential use fuel cell
The residential use fuel cell sales were
about 16 billion yen in 2010, and they will grow about 85 times to 1,400 billion
yen in 2025 in 11 major markets in Asia including Japan, Europe, and North
America. The three countries that actively promote residential use fuel cell
are Japan, Korea, and Germany, and Japan outpaces other two. It may be hard to
establish substantial business in North America because energy cost is not high
there. As the special measures to stimulate the spread of renewable energy, the
central government allow electricity generated by renewable energy to be sold beginning
in July in Japan. Currently, three companies of JX Oil and Energy, Tokyo Gas,
and Osaka Gas are very active in the market, but other companies are going to
participate in this market.
The large-scale generation inevitably
wastes heat energy in time of generation even though generation efficiency is
high. If a household is equipped with a residential use fuel cell, it can
generate electricity for such applications as lights, hot water supply, and
heating without waste. Depending on the materials to be used, the residential
use fuel cell can roughly be divided into (1) Solid oxygen fuel cell (SOFC) and
(2) Polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC). The residential use fuel cell is
still expensive, and most consumers need to rely on the subsidy for
introduction. It is urgent task for the industry to reduce production cost,
establish a mass production system, and increase generation efficiency.
Ene-Farm (residential use fuel cell) from JX Oil and Energy
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