www.greentechmedia.com
July 25, 2011
ClearEdge Power is one of many aspirants looking to make technological progress and commercial inroads in the difficult fuel-cell market.
ClearEdge Power, headquartered in Oregon with more than 200 employees worldwide, builds proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel-cells that produce electricity and heat from natural gas. Investors include Applied Ventures, Big Basin Ventures and Kohlberg Ventures.
The firm builds 5 kW modules that target premium residential, small commercial and institutional stationary applications such as schools. Their PEM fuel-cell incorporates a reformer and runs off of natural gas like the Bloom Energy fuel-cell, although the Bloom Box is a solid oxide design, produces electricity and not heat, and comes in much larger 100 kW chunks.
I spoke with Mike Upp, the VP of Marketing at ClearEdge Power, and he said the deals currently being closed by the firm are in the 20 kW to 40 kW range and involve the use of numerous 5 kW boxes in a single configuration. Upp also claimed that in the "under 100 kW sweets pot" that ClearEdge Power services, "There is nobody else playing yet". Upp said that ClearEdge Power has 100 installations operating, almost all in California, about half in residential applications. But now ClearEdge Power is targeting light commercial by dint of its potential for more unit sales and repeat customers.
Like the hypetastic Bloom fuel-cell, the ClearEdge Power product is spendy. A 5 kW unit has a $56,000 list price and installation can run from $12,000 to $20,000. There is a $15,000 investment tax credit and California provides a $12,500 Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) rebate, although the SGIP program is currently under review. Even after incentives, the fuel-cell is expensive compared to the grid or to a diesel genset. Certainly, the thermal component has value for hot water production or enterprise heating.
According to the firm, the 5 kW unit generates a combined 83,300 kW of energy per year: 38,800 kW of electricity and 44,500 kW (equivalent to 152 MM BTUs per year of heat) of useable thermal energy. ClearEdge Power's Oregon factory can produce 2,500 units per year and can be upgraded to reach more than 10,000 units per year. Like all fuel-cell firms, ClearEdge Power must continue to drive down costs while improving its longterm reliability.
ClearEdge Power recently received $2.8 million from the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Fuel Cell Technologies Program to deploy fuel-cells in a variety of commercial buildings. ClearEdge Power will install its CHP system at 10 vertical markets in California and Oregon, while Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will monitor the systems and measure the expected energy savings. Deployments are meant to be varied and include schools, a car dealership, a laundry and multifamily housing units. The program is about market transformation, the money is intended to defray the upfront cost of the units.
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