Ceres Power Holdings PLC (LON:CWR) has expanded its fuel cell collaboration with Bosch, moving from prototyping to preparing for mass production.
Together they are developing solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems based on Ceres’ proprietary technology. Multiple sites in Germany are aiming to produce the fuel cells, with the partners targeting an initial 200 megawatts of capacity in aggregate.
The aim is to create systems that can be used in the stationary power market to enable decentralised power plants in cities, factories, data centres and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
READ: Ceres inks manufacturing deal with Doosan
Ceres said the latest collaboration deal is worth around GBP23mln to the company from 2021 to 2023, of which GBP6mln is conditional upon performance-based KPIs.
In a statement, Dr Christian Fischer, Bosch director, added: “We see the highly efficient solid oxide fuel cell as an essential element of a sustainable energy supply. To bring it about, we are pooling Bosch expertise from across several divisions. Together with our partner Ceres Power, we are now taking the next important step toward full-scale production.”
“We are delighted that our relationship with our trusted partner Bosch goes from strength to strength and are confident that the combination of our innovative technology and Bosch’s industrial engineering expertise will deliver significant value for both companies in providing products that contribute towards addressing the challenge of climate change,” said Phil Caldwell, Ceres chief executive.
Bosch has a 17.6% shareholding in Ceres.
In a note highlighting that today’s news confirms Bosch plans to invest hundreds of millions of Euros into fuel cell technology by 2024, Liberum Capital analyst Adam Collins said: “It is encouraging to see Bosch is making a sizeable capital investment and Ceres pre-production fees are a tad higher than we expected.”
The analyst added: “The original agreement struck in 2018 generated GBP20mln in upfront fees paid in 2019 to 2020 and today’s RNS indicates Ceres will also now receive top-up fees of up to cGBP23mln 2021-2023. Royalty revenue at 200MW is not indicated but could be GBP12mln per annum at 2024 prices we think though Bosch could be heading to >1GW by 2030.”
