Wärtsilä is to target Japan’s distributed generation market after signing an agreement with Hitachi Zosen covering the development and marketing of fuel cell-based products.
The two companies say that they will combine their experience in technology and business development to provide Japan’s energy markets with a “new and competitive solution”. The product will be based on Wärtsilä’s fuel cell technology and aimed at combined heat and power applications running on either city gas or biogas.
The co-operation between the two companies will help them to optimise future fuel cell products, says Wärtsilä. “This is an important step towards the commercialisation of fuel cell technology,” said Erkko Fontell, Director, Fuel Cells, Wärtsilä Finland.
Wärtsilä has been collaborating with Hitachi Zosen for more than 20 years for the sale of its products into the Japanese market. Its fuel cell technology is based on planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology and can use natural gas, city gas and biogas as fuel.
