Electrochemical company Ceres Power and Doosan Fuel Cell have signed a deal to build an initial 50MW fuel cell stack manufacturing facility in South Korea.

The partnership will advance the production of Ceres SteelCells and stacks, as well as support the integration of stacks for higher power generation applications.

The three year £30 million ($39 million) contract includes a global non-exclusive license to manufacture Ceres’ solid oxide fuel cell stacks with technology transfer and joint development, as well as agreed royalty streams upon the commencement of production and commercial sale of 5kW SteelCell stacks.

The contracts with Doosan Corporation are worth £6 million ($7.8 million) to Ceres for the long-term testing, sales and integration of stacks and will build on the collaboration and licensing agreement signed with Doosan Corporation in July 2019 for a commercial CHP system targeting the commercial building market.

Fuel cell stacks manufactured by Doosan will initially meet its own product demand for CHP and the planned power plant product line. In time, manufacturing could expand to meet global demand for Ceres’ stacks in multiple applications.

Doosan’s fuel cell business designs, engineers and manufactures fuel cells for both commercial and industrial applications. Doosan will utilise Ceres’ SteelCell solid oxide fuel cell technology, to enable high efficiency and cost competitive products that will deliver clean, secure and scalable energy systems.

South Korea has progressive targets that encourage the deployment of hydrogen and fuel cell technology (16GW by 2040). Its Green New Deal has committed KRW73.4 trillion ($60 billion) as part of a wider national strategy to tackle climate change, support industry and jobs, and to break the economy’s dependence on carbon.

Doosan is committed to developing and supplying efficient clean stationary fuel cells to meet the South Korean government renewable energy plans and to shape the hydrogen future.

Mr. Hyunsoo Dong, vice chairman of Doosan Corporation commented: “By partnering with Ceres Power, Doosan will expand its product portfolio and strengthen its position as the leader in the fuel cell industry. We are excited to expand on our existing collaboration to build a world leading SOFC stack mass manufacturing centre and to create a strong fuel cell industry ecosystem in Korea and beyond.”

Phil Caldwell, CEO of Ceres Power said: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Doosan as a strategic manufacturing partner and to broaden our relationship to target utility scale systems. Doosan has an enviable track-record in commercialising fuel cell technology. Our success is measured by our partners’ success and this is further validation of our asset-light, licensing business model that enables the world’s most progressive companies to adopt our technology at scale and speed.”