According to Pike Research’s latest report titled, ‘Stationary Fuel Cells,’ the global stationary fuel cell market will attain a value of $9.5 billion in 2017, exceeding 1.2 million systems shipped per year.
The application of stationary fuel cells in mobile base stations used for wireless communications will also experience a rapid growth, achieving 422,000 systems in 2017. The report predicts that fuel cell shipments for the residential market will increase over two folds in each of the coming six years.
The stationary fuel cell market has experienced a rapid growth in recent years, growing by 60%, to just above 9,000 systems in 2010 alone. The stationary fuel cell market is anticipated to grow continuously, as applications in primary and backup power for mobile base stations, electricity generators and combined heat and power for both commercial and residential buildings get recognition and cause important revenue channels.
Countries, including Denmark, Germany and Japan, are the early centers adopting the stationary fuel cell, especially for residential CHP uses. The United Kingdom, the United States and South Korea are the prompt followers adopting stationary fuel cells in this major application field. Decreasing the capital costs of production and procuring the units, standardizing the technology and strengthening the profile of stationary fuel cells are the major priorities for the industry.
Although more than 60 companies are actively involved in the development programs, only few companies are able to ship commercial units. According to Pike Research, just five firms accounted for over three-fourth of the shipments of all the units in the worldwide market. The comprehensive report provides market forecasts in terms of application area, segmented by world region, revenue, installed capacity and unit shipments.