As part of the Environmental Technologies Export Initiative, NOW GmbH has evaluated fields of application and opportunities for fuel cells in emerging and developing countries on behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU – Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit). This latest factsheet highlights their potential for decentralised and off-grid power supply, using India as an example.
India is one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases. As the economy continues to grow, so does the demand for energy there – an increasing proportion of which is to be met by the use of renewable energies. This will contribute to the electrification of rural regions and reduce dependence on fuel imports. For example, 175 GW of capacity is to be installed by March 2022. Such an increase in renewable energies requires suitable, scalable storage facilities. The implementation of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies could be the solution to this challenge.
Another promising area of application is the replacement of the widespread and quite unreliable diesel generators that are currently used to operate mobile phone base stations with fuel cell systems – a measure that is also being supported and promoted by the Indian government. The NOW factsheet shows the advantages for local value creation and the environment, and outlines the opportunities for small and medium-sized companies from Germany to position themselves internationally.
The deployment of this technology has already been widely demonstrated and implemented in Germany. Clean Power Net provides good examples.