Support Schemes and Ownership Structures: The Policy Context for Fuel Cell Based Micro‐Combined Heat and Power

In recent years, fuel cell based micro‐combined heat and power has received increasing attention due to its potential contribution to energy savings, efficiency gains, customer proximity and flexibility in operation and capacity size. The FC4Home project assesses technical and economic aspects of the ongoing fuel cell based micro‐combined heat and power (mCHP) demonstration projects by addressing the socio‐economic and systems analyses perspectives of a large‐scale promotion scheme of fuel cells.

This document constitutes the deliverable of Work Package 1 of the FC4Home project and provides an introduction to the policy context for mCHP. Section 1 describes the rationale for the promotion of mCHP by explaining its potential contribution to European energy policy goals. Section 2 addresses the policy context at the supranational European level by outlining relevant EU Directives on support schemes for promoting combined heat and power and energy from renewable sources.

These Directives are to be implemented at the national level by the Member States. Section 3 conceptually presents the spectrum of national support schemes, ranging from investment support to market‐based operational support. The choice of support scheme simultaneously affects risk and technological development, which is the focus of Section 4.

Subsequent to this conceptual overview, Section 5 takes a glance at the national application of support schemes for mCHP in practice, notably in the three country cases of the FC4Home project, Denmark, France and Portugal. Another crucial aspect for the diffusion of the mCHP technology is possible ownership structures.

These may range from full consumer ownership to ownership by utilities and energy service companies, which is discussed in Section 6. Finally, a conclusion (Section 7) wraps up previous findings and provides a short “preview” of the quantitative analyses in subsequent Work Packages by giving some food for thought on the way.