Fuel Cell Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Growing Awareness About Clean Energy – Solid oxide fuels operate effectively and are nevertheless regarded as environmentally friendly as they produce little carbon dioxide. According to the United Nations, emissions must be cut by almost half by 2030 and to zero by 2050 in order to prevent the worst effects of climate change. Cleaner energy sources are therefore becoming more popular. Right now, renewable energy sources account for about 29 percent of electricity.

• Rising Need to Reduce the Dependency on Fossil Fuels– Solid oxide fuel cells may produce electricity using hydrogen, natural gas, and renewable energy sources, which lessens reliance on fossil fuels. As per the report backed by the United Nations, in order to avoid a potentially disastrous rise in global temperatures, countries must reduce their production of fossil fuels by 6% annually between 2020 and 2030.

• Rise in the Number of Data Centers – Fuel cells are modular and low maintenance, making it simple to integrate, therefore, making it a longer-term dependable solution for data centers. There were around 8,000 data centers worldwide as of January 2021, spread across 110 different nations. Six of these nations are the United States with 33 percent of the total data centers, the United Kingdom with 5.7 percent, and China has a share of 5.2 percent.

• Increasing Use of Hydrogen Energy– The capacity of electrolyzes reached about 8 GW in 2021, a two-fold increase from 2020. The electrolyzers are used in hydrogen generation by splitting water. Additionally, assuming every project in the pipeline is finished by 2030, the installed electrolyze capacity might reach 134-240 GW.

• Higher Restrictions on Greenhouse Gas Emission– According to the Climate Act proposed by the Dutch government, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 49% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels and by 95% by 2050. The act consists of agreements with various major sectors to curb the greenhouse gas emissions.

Challenges

• High cost of manufacturing of fuel cells- The initial cost of fuel cells can be significantly high since it uses metals such as platinum and iridium that are frequently needed as catalysts in these devices. Moreover, owing to the higher cost of raw materials, it makes the manufacturing of fuel cells expensive, thus imposing a major roadblock to the market’s growth.
• Inadequate infrastructure to support hydrogen distribution
• Available fuel cells are still in the prototype stage