In July 2014 Bloom Energy (BE) signed a new contract for delivery of 21MW of SOFC energy to 75 generating places. Contract was signed with an Exelon Corporation. When considering BE ES-5700 Energy Saver unit, it gives more than 100 Energy Savers! This is a huge amount of stacks and cells. Together with the entry to the Japananese market (in collaboration with Softbank) the position of BE is becoming stronger and stronger. This announcement quite clearly indicates that SOFCs are becoming a fully commercial technology. Scale of BE activities is orders of magnitude higher then its European competitors. Maybe Japan (MHI and Kyocera) will be able to compete on the scale basis.

Link to the source: LINK

I highly recommend that anyone interested in SOFC should watch this nice and general movie. Due to a very close collaboration, our work at DTU Energyconversion can be a part of the next stack technology from TOFC.

Some time ago I wrote about a metal supported SOFC system for developing countries in Africa, where the device was meant to be put into the burning stove. The company is now trying to develop the technology further and built a camping stove with built in fuel cell to generate electricity. They try to get funding through the Kickstarter platform. You can try to get one of the devices for as low as 79$ (+20 for shipping to Europe). I think it is a very good price. I pledged for the 138$ option where you also buy the Voto unit for Kenya. I hope they will be successful as I would like to get one of these devices. I would really be using this device on my camping trips. Too bad it will be delivered after summer.

You can find more info on the Kickstarter site:  LINK

In a recently released Journal of Power Sources (vol. 241, pp. 477-485, 2013) a very interesting and important publication about operation of SOFC stack test was published. It was submitted by FZ Juelich in Germany, one of the leading players in the SOFC area. Stack reached more than 40000 hours and I think it is the only publication with such a long test. It proves that this technology can be regarded as feasible. More information about the findings in this report I will try to write soon...

Publication - link to publication on the Elsevier platform.

Few years ago I heard about a company called Liliputian (coming from MIT university) that was developing solid oxide fuel cell based on micro platforms. Then I lost track about it and very recently I read that based on this new mobile phone charger will be sold. Using micro SOFC platform and butane cartridges it will allow to recharge your mobile phone as long as you will have the butane cassettes.

One of the interesting things about this company is that it includes cooperation with Intel and some of the venture funding has been provided by Rusnano. Russian government initiative to invest money in prospective nanotechnology ventures.

Nectar Power - LINK
Brookstone, you can preorder Nectar here - LINK
Article in Ceramic Tech - LINK

Some time ago (LINK) I found a very interesting article about the development of metal supported cells that will be actually produced and used to help developing countries. After spending many years on research of metal supported cells (and being still involved), I have to say I am happy to see that. Names of people involved I know from the literature, so it proves that science can be transferred from the lab to the market if right people are involved. The application area is maybe somewhat strange or niche, but definitely it is a huge success and I hope the company will manage to grow.