Bosch and the Bamberg public utility are using a stationary fuel cell connected to an IoT cloud to produce electricity and heat in a city district.

The stationary fuel cell at the central bus station in Bamberg supplies more than 20 four-person households with climate-friendly electricity. The heat generated provides an adjacent bakery with heating and hot water.

Bosch plans to invest a three-digit million euro amount in stationary fuel cells by the end of 2024.

Working with Stadtwerke Bamberg, the city’s public utility, on a stationary fuel cell in Bamberg’s city centre, Bosch is demonstrating its vision of a decentralised, climate-friendly energy supply of the future.

The two partners have taken a micro power plant based on solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFC) into operation at Bamberg’s central bus station. Measuring roughly two metres high, the refrigerator-sized plant generates around 10kW of electricity, which is enough to meet the annual requirements of more than 20 four-person households in the neighbourhood of the bus station.

With an overall efficiency of 60 per cent for power generation and more than 85 per cent with additional use of heat, this stationary fuel cell is said to be clearly better than other energy converters of its size. The heat it produces is used by a bakery at the bus station for its heating and hot water.

“As we move to alternative forms of energy, decentralised power supplies are becoming very important,” said Wilfried Kölscheid, who is responsible for stationary fuel cells at Bosch. “The stationary fuel cell is ideally suited to the expansion of local power and heating networks in urban neighbourhoods. We are pleased to have found a partner in Stadtwerke Bamberg with whom we can jointly demonstrate what our stationary fuel cell is capable of.”

Putting the stationary fuel cell to work in an urban neighbourhood is not just an important field of application for Bosch; the Bamberg public utility also sees the technology as sustainable for energy supplies to existing buildings, as well as when planning new districts.

“The experience we gain with this fuel cell should deliver lasting benefits when it comes to future energy supplies to existing buildings and new neighbourhoods,” said Michael Fiedeldey, managing director of Stadtwerke Bamberg. “At the same time, we want everyone to be able to experience the new technology for themselves. That’s why we didn’t hide it away in some basement, but instead installed it in the middle of the bus station, which is a traffic hub visited by over 20,000 people a day.”

As soon as the situation permits, the InnoLab at the bus station will be open regularly for interested guests, with experts from both companies on hand to answer questions.

The SOFC plant is very quiet. Stadtwerke Bamberg is running it on natural gas, but it is already suitable for hydrogen. When compared with the German electricity mix, an SOFC system reduces emissions of the greenhouse gas CO₂ by almost 40 per cent, even when running on natural gas. If the fuel cell runs on hydrogen, it no longer causes any direct CO₂ emissions.

Thanks to this, SOFC systems can ensure a sustainable supply of energy to cities and conurbations with high energy requirements, since the stationary fuel cell’s output can be set to match demand. What’s more, connecting a series of fuel cells to the existing gas infrastructure is a way to relieve the power grid, meaning additional electricity demand can be met using on-site generation.

The SOFC plant in Bamberg is also connected to Bosch’s IoT cloud: 20 sensors within the fuel cell continuously provide data on power generation and the system’s operating status. These data also help further develop the technology.

In the future, it will be possible to connect stationary fuel cells to each other via the cloud to form virtual power plants and then control them digitally using intelligent, self-learning software, conserving both the environment and resources.

Bamberg’s mayor Andreas Starke welcomed the alliance and the high visibility of the plant at the Bamberg bus station.

“We are proud that Bosch and Stadtwerke Bamberg are implementing the stationary fuel cell, a climate-friendly and at the same time economical technology,” said Starke. “This innovative energy supply is an important building block in the facelift we are giving the Bamberg business location, and will help secure jobs for the future.”

Bosch wants to invest a three-digit million euro amount in stationary fuel cells by the end of 2024 and put SOFC systems to the test under real-life conditions. In Germany, Bosch already operates more than 20 SOFC pilot plants at its sites in Bamberg, Homburg, Renningen, Schwieberdingen, Feuerbach and Wernau. The company has 250 associates working in this field at various locations – more than 100 of them in Bamberg alone. The Bosch plant in Bamberg produces the all-important stacks for fuel cells.

“We are proud that the Bamberg plant is integral to driving the pre-commercialisation phase for solid-oxide fuel cells all the way to large-scale production, which is expected in 2024,” said Martin Schultz, commercial plant manager at the Bosch plant in Bamberg. “Together with Stadtwerke Bamberg, we can test this pioneering innovation directly on-site in real-life operations and gain important insights into its operation.”