Fronius Energy Cell

Fronius is a company that has taken on the task of designing a sustainable future. Research into renewable sources of energy is at the top of our list of priorities. With the development of a practical energy cell concept, we have taken yet another step closer to this future.

It all started with the idea of making solar power available anytime regardless of the current weather conditions and time of year. In order to realize this dream, we needed an adequate solution to store the energy.
The storage of excess solar power for periods with little or no sunlight (e.g. at night or over the winter months) is normally accompanied by major losses due to battery self-discharge (5 - 10% per month), making this less energy-efficient and/or even impossible over longer periods of time.
In order to make a photovoltaic system a year-round, autonomous energy source, up until now you would have to rely on loud and environmentally-unfriendly gas generators.

The use of a fuel cell as an additional energy source is not only better for the environment, but often much less expensive because it enables you to significantly reduce the size of the solar generator and accumulator.

The Fronius Energy Cell is more than just a fuel cell: It is a total regenerative energy supply system: A photovoltaic system supplies the power used to operation an electrolyzer. This separates water into oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is saved and then converted into energy as needed by the fuel cell. An ingenious energy management system provides the highest efficiency and cost-effectiveness. In this way, we developed a hybrid fuel cell system with integrated backup storage which makes clean, emission-free energy a sustainable and practical reality. The results have been nothing less than spectacular lighting the way to the future.

 

The core of this concept, a hybrid fuel cell with integrated inverter electronics, is already available as a prototype device.

The prototypes are currently undergoing TÜV certification. As soon as this is complete, additional, external pilot systems will go into operation in various applications in 2008. During this pilot phase, Fronius will be defining the schedule for the official market introduction of the Fronius Energy Cell.

Ambitious & innovative: The HyLOG project from Fronius 

"HyLOG" stands for Hydrogen powered Logistic System. The ambitious goal of this project is the implementation of an emissions-free and more efficient in-house logistics system in a real industrial application environment – in this case, at the Fronius facility in Sattledt (Upper Austria).

Double the energy concentration – No emissions:
5 logistics trains are used in Sattledt for internal transport. They supply more than 600 workstations with material at 2 hour intervals. This is the only way to ensure seamless production processes.

One of the trains used here is being retrofitted and tested in a pilot phase of the HyLOG project to run on hydrogen produced by solar energy. The current lead/acid batteries in the vehicle are being replaced by the Fronius Energy Cell - a low temperature fuel cell - and a hydrogen cartridge as a fuel tank. The major advantages of this system include: The elimination of time-intensive battery charging - it only takes a few minutes to replace the hydrogen cartridge. It is also completely emissions-free - the solar energy used in the electrolysis process to produce the hydrogen comes from the factory's 604 kWp PV system.
The impressive results of this innovative solution: Double the energy concentration compared to lead/acid batteries as well as double the range.