BREAZE

The recent election of Ted Baillieu as Premier of Victoria brings the focus onto fuel cells, an emerging technology that burns gas to produce electricity and heat/cooling in domestic size units designed for homes and small businesses. It's not a renewable energy technology as it burns fossil gas but it does offer large improvements in efficiency and hastens the move towards a distributed electricity grid. As such it represents one of the options that could help make homes and businesses less polluting.

BREAZE member John Saunders is a keen advocate and he has his say below. For the record, John's views are not necessarily those of BREAZE.

Ceramic Fuel Cells Blue Gen Units, by BREAZE Member John Saunders

Aussie Invention, abundant, clean, inexpensive electricity and heat from air and gas.

http://www.cfcl.com.au/BlueGen/

Renewable energy is about generating power from natural sources.  In Australia, an average home uses 18 - 20 Kwt hr of electricity daily.  As part of Australia's renewable energy target, at least 20% of electricity needs to be generated from renewable sources by 2020, but this is going to be a lengthy
and costly process.

Meanwhile the ongoing controversy of climate change, green house and carbon emissions continues.  If the proponents of these issues, the Greens, many of our politicians and governments are seriously concerned, why is it that the answer to that, as well as to the soaring costs of electricity is available to us right now from fuel cells technology, developed
by CSIRO, Australia's leading research labs in the 1980s but is continually being ignored in Australia in favour of less efficient and costlier power generation which seems that this issue is nothing less than confidence trickery propounded by the above mentioned pollution proponents?

CSIRO has been developing advanced ceramics and solid oxide fuel cells technology for many years, leading to the establishment of it's spin off company, Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd which develpoed solid oxide fuel cell product to provide reliable, energy efficient and low emission electricity fron widely available natural gas and LPG as well as ethanol which is a renewable fuel.

CFCL's products and technology can be utilised in many different applications and markets, from domestic electricity generation to mobile and auxilliary power units as well as to remote areas power supplies without the need for expensive infrastructure programmes and complex appliance integration.

Fuel cells produce electricity through a silent electrochemical reaction to convert the chemical energy in the fuel directly into electricity, heat and water and because fuel cells do not burn the fuel through combustion, they are very efficient and do not produce greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide, methane or nitrogen oxide. Other distributed generation sources includes photovolaic cells and micro wind turbines.

These technologies are both highly visible and well known, however they depend on weather conditions and can not provide stable base load electricity all year round. Solid oxide fuel cells can provide constant all year round reliable and efficient low emission electricity.  A 2 Kw fuel cell can generate 17,000Kw/h of electricity over the course of a year,
more than twice an average home needs, as well as 200 litres of hot water daily and offset just under18 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.  By contrast, a 2Kw solar PV will generate 2,500Kw/h of power per year and offset about 3 tonnes of CO2.

Conversely, electricity derived from brown coal is about 25% efficient, 75% of the energy produced is lost as heat at the power station and in transmission and distribution by wires. In early 2010, Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd launched it's Blue Gen modular generator product that provides high quality electricity and heat.  The size of a small bar fridge, the unit contains
a stack of ceramic fuel cells.  Connected to the gas outlet and to the hot water system in the home, air and gas is fed into the unit resulting in a chemical reaction within, producing power and hot water on site.  Blue Gen's production of both electricity and heat gives it an efficiency of 85%, making it the most efficient power generating system of it's kind in the world.

Blue Gen's ceramic fuel cells uses 95% less water than coal fired power generating stations and when deployed in volume, can generate electricity 40% cheaper than the current retail price. Australian homes using Blue Gen can save more than$1,100 of their annual power bill.

Over the year, the Blue Gen provides all the power the home needs and more.  The surplus electricity can be sold back into the grid and used by industry, allowing closures of coal burning power stations which currently produce up to 98% of some of Australian States electricity requirements.

The Brumby Government has aquired 34 Blue Gen units and is trialling them at Vic Urbans' sustainable home Aurora development at Epping North and the Vic Government Dept of Human Services.  Energy Australia and Canberra Institute of Technology are also using Blue Gens. Already progressive foreign Govermnments are promoting the take up of distributed fuel cells technology.  CFCL is developing products with leading appliance partners and utility customers
in Germany where the company was awarded a prestigious government award for the most innovative technology company, in France, UK, the Netherlands and production facility in Germany. It has been said that in that country utility companies supply the units free of charge to households who then pay for the gas they use, but according to CFCL's web site, the Germans recieve a capital subsidy of up to 3,300 Euros for a 2Kw unit as well as a feed in tariff. 

In Australia, there are no feed in tariff available for fuel cells technology because it is not considered renewable, although ethanol can be used as fuel which is renewable and the Australian Coalition is considering giving rebates for ceramic fuel cells.

The UK Government also announced that a feedin tariff would apply from 2010. On February2010, CFCL's web site states that Blue Gen will be avaliable to Australian consumers in the next few months.

Enquiries at the company's office resulted in being directed to their appointed distributor of the product in Melbourne, NECO Holdings Pty Ltd, a Green energy retailer located in the suburb of Mulgrave.  Enquiry at the NECO office revealed that no sale of the Blue Gen was as yet available, but that the price of a unit would be $45,000 and that is for a 2 year lease only, not for outright purchase.  Commenting to NECO's sales adminstrator that in Germany this product is subsidised if not given free, I was told that this is Australia, not Germany.

Here is a product creating low emission base load power from natural gas, LPG or Ethanol and cells, able to solve many of the causes affecting climate, deliver clean inexpensive electricity and heat, why then, is this product from a company spun off CSIRO who established it and contributed to the research and development program of this company for many years and itself funded by Aussie tax payers, is produced and available cheaply to overseas consumers, yet made unaffordable here,when and if it is eventually produced and released in Australia, and why are our Governments hiding it
from us?  It would not be surprising to find that Brumby had this in mind when he decided to close part of Hazlewood power station.  With this technology, all coal burning power stations in Australia can be shut down.

Readers can draw their own conclusions as to who is responsible for this and the reason behind it.

John Saunders, Ballarat.