The diffusion process of stationary fuel cells in a two-sided market economy

This paper presents an innovative approach to promote the hydrogen economy based on the two-sided markets theory. In the hydrogen economy, the hydrogen is delivered to the customers and is then converted into electricity and heat by fuel cells. This environmentally friendly decentralized power network consists of fuel cell manufacturers, hydrogen producers, and the purchasers of fuel cells and hydrogen. We present the specific characteristics of networks - two-sided market effects - and describe their effectiveness of establishing a network. Because the coordination of these effects additionally helps to implement the hydrogen economy locally, we consider an intermediary in the network. To fulfil this task we model a Bass diffusion process of fuel cells and hydrogen producers. The simulations indicate that including and coordinating the network effects can accelerate the diffusion of fuel cells and hydrogen supply significantly fuel cell installations can be doubled in the first 5 years. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.