New Trends Point to Virtues of Fuel Cells and Direct Current for Modular Microgrids

The beauty of a microgrid is that it can come in so many sizes. It can also incorporate many different types of distributed energy resources (DER)—from different forms of generation to creative load management and even energy storage—to bridge any gaps in supply or demand.

DER Growing Ever More Popular for Microgrids

Guidehouse Insights has projected that both solar PV and energy storage will emerge as the two most popular DER options over the next decade. Yet, that doesn’t mean other technologies—such as fuel cells—won’t play a growing role in the microgrid universe. Perhaps the company most keen on this market opportunity is Bloom Energy, which ranks in the Top 10 vendors in terms of projects deployed in the forthcoming update to the Microgrid Deployment Tracker. The company has deployed its fuel cells in more than 60 microgrid projects, representing roughly an equal amount of megawatts. But those numbers will increase dramatically in the future.

Earlier this year, Guidehouse Insights estimated growth in all major DER technologies going into microgrids, including fuel cells. Though relatively modest in scale, the microgrid fuel cell market is anticipated to reach nearly $2 billion in annual sales over the next decade.

Annual Fuel Cell Microgrid Capacity and Implementation Spending by Region, World Markets: 2017-2026

(Source: Guidehouse Insights)

Optimizing Fuel Cells

Historically, fuel cells were deployed by market leaders such as Bloom Energy within single resource microgrids for clients such as data centers. These are clients that are extremely conservative in nature and are comfortable with the steady stream of electricity flowing from non-variable onsite generation. Since fuel cells can be fickle when it comes to small deviations in frequency, integrating them into microgrids featuring a plethora of variable renewable energy resources has been problematic. The emergence of lower cost energy storage solutions is beginning to change this basic assumption.

What about Direct Current?

One solid step in the direction of more advanced microgrids is Bloom Energy’s integration of a direct current (DC) bus to create a more modular structure to integrate energy storage devices into its fleet of microgrids. Working with PowerSecure, which was featured in Guidehouse Insights’ recent ranking of microgrid controls vendors, Bloom Energy is rolling out its new DC bus platform for a fleet of microgrids to be deployed at Home Depot stores. Another big win for Bloom Energy was the integration of its new DC bus offering into the new Apple campus in Silicon Valley, whereby 4 MW of fuel cells were integrated into a 5 MWh system with its new platform. The microgrid also features 16 MW of solar PV.

Among the other vendors extolling the virtues of a DC bus are EnSync and Tecogen. The latter has perhaps the first plug-and-play microgrid offering (and also ranks in the Top 10 of vendors regarding numbers of microgrids deployed). Look for a Guidehouse Insights report, Direct Current Distribution Networks, later this year to dig much deeper into the value proposition surrounding DC and the emergence of a modular microgrid movement.