Together with its partner, an independent company for development, simulation, and testing, AVL, Norway’s cleantech company TECO 2030 has completed production of the world’s first fuel cell stack developed and purposely designed for heavy-duty and marine applications.
“It’s amazing to be able to physically touch the first TECO 2030 fuel cell stack. I would like to thank all the team members at TECO 2030 and our development partner AVL who have worked hard to ensure this project has progressed according to schedule over the past months and years, enabling us to proceed with several pilot projects during 2023,” said Tore Enger, CEO of TECO 2030.
The occasion was celebrated in Vancouver, Canada, where AVL has its global centre of excellence for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell stacks.
Falko Berg, Manager and Technical Product Responsible for PEM Systems at AVL List, said: “It’s great to see the fuel cell stack that TECO 2030 is industrialising inching towards serial production. Today’s milestone marks the next logical and important step towards launching the fuel cell factory in Narvik, its class-leading fuel cell system and finally decarbonising the marine industry.”
A fuel cell stack consists of a number of individual stack cells, each generating electricity from electrochemical reactions based on fuels such as hydrogen.
According to TECO 2030, its fuel cell stack contains a few hundred stack cells and provides a net output of 100 kW. The stacks are combined together with the balance of plant (BoP) components into a fuel cell module.
The cleantech company said that fuel cell stacks can be combined to supply the megawatts of output needed for applications such as ship propulsion, auxiliary power, and other heavy-duty applications.
TECO 2030 plans to assemble and test the first FCM400 (Fuel Cell Module 400 kW) during the summer of 2023 at AVL’s s facility in Graz, Austria.
It has also announced several pilot projects that will proceed in 2023, covering fuel cell systems for marine applications, trucks, and construction sites.
“Following the milestone announced today, we will gradually increase production during 2023 to supply fuel cell systems for a number of pilot projects, followed by automated volume production at our gigafactory in Narvik, Norway, from early 2024,” Enger said.
He added: “TECO 2030 is targeting heavy-duty industries where the emissions of greenhouse gases are substantial and where batteries will have to be supplemented by fuel cells to provide a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Today, we took a major step on the road to decarbonisation in these areas.”
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