The ‘Panasonic Fuel Cell Development Office Europe’ in Langen, Germany will focus on developing fuel cells for the European market. The company has high hopes for the technology
A hastily put together TV advert in the 1970s warned people to ‘switch off some power – NOW’. While we’re not facing widespread blackouts just yet, government reports have suggested that, by 2017, there will be power cuts of around 3,000 megawatt hours per year. So, does the 40 year-old public information film still ring true?

Panasonic has been developing micro combined heat and power (CHP) fuel cell systems for household applications since 1999.

Two years ago the Japanese electronics giant launched the world’s first residential fuel cell CHP system, the Ene-Farm unit, in Japan, achieved through collaboration with several gas utilities, including Tokyo Gas.

The company now plans to extend its operations into Europe. The Panasonic Fuel Cell Development Office Europe in the company’s European R&D Centre in Germany, is a key part of realising this aim.

The by-product heat generated in the fuel cell micro CHP system is used for home heating and hot water. In Japan, a house powered by an Ene-Farm fuel cell can expect to save about 1.5 tonnes of CO₂ emissions per annum, compared with a house powered by electricity from a thermal power station and a gas heating system.

“We have a global goal to become the number one green innovation company in the consumer electronics industry by 2018,” says Laurent Abadie, chairman and CEO of Panasonic Europe.

The Ene-Farm fuel cell co-generation systems generate electricity through a chemical reaction between oxygen in the atmosphere and hydrogen extracted from city gas, and the heat generated as a by-product of this process is also used for home heating and hot water supply.

This system is extremely eco-friendly. Since the electricity is generated and used at the same place, there are no losses in transmission. Also, all heat produced during electricity generation can be used without waste.

Compared to conventional methods of using electricity, the fuel cell system allows primary energy consumption to be reduced by around 35 per cent and CO₂ emissions by about 48 per cent.

The Ene-Farm fuel cell offers a rated generation efficiency of 40 per cent (LHV), representing a further improvement on the existing range of products with over 37 per cent (LHV) efficiency, said to be the highest in the world to date.

The system configuration of fuel cell units has been greatly simplified and the core components such as the “stacks” which generate electricity have been downsized. These cost-saving efforts have allowed Tokyo Gas and Panasonic to lower the recommended retail price of the new system to 2,761,500 yen (about £22,000) including tax, but excluding installation fee.