SOFC microCHP regulation and application in the commercial sector

The regulation of a country can represent a big obstacle for the application of Fuel Cell microCHPs. For this reason, an analysis of the Italian regulation for the building energy efficiency is carried on. The main objective of this study is to find possible obstacles to the diffusion of SOFC microCHP systems and to understand if the higher electrical efficiency of these machines is considered in a positive way for the calculation of the energy demand and energy class of a commercial building. In the first part, the Italian regulation is analysed, with a focus on the methods for the evaluation of the energy consumption of the building and on the constraints imposed by the Ministerial Decrees. Then, all the positive and negative aspects about FC microCHPs are presented, considering as reference the SOLIDpower company's product BLUEgen, a SOFC with an electrical power equal to 1.5 kW and an electrical efficiency of 60%. Furthermore, a practical case is presented in detail: the building is the Vinovo's public pool, modeled using the ACCA Software TerMus. Three different cases are considered and compared: - The BASE CASE, related to the first energy audit done by Coesa Srl company. - The SOFC CASE, where the a fuel cell with an electrical power of 10.5 kW is added to the generation plant of the buiding. - The IMPROVED BUILDING CASE, where it is considered also an improvement of the building structure, with the same generation plant of SOFC CASE. In addition, a comparison between CHPs with different electrical efficiencies is performed starting from the SOFC CASE. The last part consists in an economic analysis of the SOFC microCHP installation, considering two cost scenarios, PRESENT and TARGET. Also a comparison with a ICE CHP is carried on.