GRASSHOPPER – Flexible MW-Scale Fuel Cell Power

A fuel cell power plant that follows the grid: GRASSHOPPER

Delfzijl and Lillo proved that PEM fuel cells can run for years at a steady output. GRASSHOPPER asked the next question: can a fuel cell power plant respond to the grid in seconds, and can it be built at a cost the market will accept?

The challenge

As more wind and solar power enters the grid, the grid needs power plants that can ramp up and down fast. Megawatt-scale PEM power plants already existed, including the 2 MW DEMCOPEM plant. But they were too expensive per kW and were not designed for dynamic operation.

GRASSHOPPER (GRid ASsiSting modular HydrOgen Pem PowER plant) set out to fix both problems at once: a modular, MW-scale fuel cell power plant that can follow grid demand, with a target CAPEX below €1,500 per kW.

The project

• Programme: Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking (EU Horizon 2020), grant agreement 779430
• Budget: €4.4 million
• Kick-off: January 2018, at AkzoNobel in Delfzijl
• Coordinator: INEA (Slovenia)
• Partners: Nedstack, Abengoa Innovación, Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells, Politecnico di Milano, ZBT
• Nedstack’s role: development of MEAs, stacks and the fuel cell system, together with Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells and ZBT

Engineering for flexibility and cost

A bigger stack

The project designed a new stack platform with 27 kW nominal power per stack, four times the power of the stacks used in the first generation of these plants. Fewer, larger stacks mean fewer parts, simpler manifolds and lower cost per kW.

A simpler plant

The balance of plant was redesigned around modularity: simplified headers and manifolds for gas distribution, high-efficiency inverters and off-the-shelf equipment wherever possible.

Built for the grid

A dedicated interface was developed so the power plant can be integrated into demand-side management through a virtual power plant, and dispatched like any other flexible grid asset.

Results

The 100 kW pilot plant was built and tested in Seville, then moved to the Netherlands for further testing. The project ended in March 2022, and the pilot plant has continued testing since. It is now in operation at the Kleefse Waard industrial park in Arnhem, where Nedstack is based.

What it proved

GRASSHOPPER showed that a PEM power plant doesn’t have to choose between endurance and flexibility. The same technology that ran for 15 years in Delfzijl can now reach full load in under a minute and follow demand within seconds.

Building on the pilot, the team designed a modular 2 MW fuel cell power plant with grid-support capability. As a spin-off, Nedstack was awarded funding under the IPCEI Hy2Tech programme to build a GW-scale factory for mass production of this technology.

Power that keeps going, and now power that responds when the grid needs it.

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