Fuel-cell solution promises to solve power issues for dismounted operations
NewsMay 06, 2025
Flavia Camargos Pereira
Military Embedded Systems
SOF WEEK 2025 -- Tampa, Fla. SFC Energy AG, a Germany-based supplier of power solutions, unveiled its next generation of portable tactical fuel cell systems at the currently underway SOF Week exhibition in Tampa. The capability was designed to address defense and public-security forces’ growing power demands during dismounted operations.
Company officials say that it can operate as a standalone power system or can alternately supply power to diverse loads in parallel in remote field applications. The product can recharge batteries without any additional chargers and is equipped with additional interfaces to facilitate connection to tactical smartphones and other portable systems. The fuel-cell solution is aimed at use in battery-powered drones, satellite-based systems, location and identification sensors, and other communication systems.
The capability results from a concept study for the further development of the company’s portable and tactical power generation solutions of the JENNY series (JENNY 600S and JENNY 1200).
Based on the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) technology, those products were engineered to be silent, emission-free and signature-free.
Christian Böhm, Senior Vice President of SFC Energy AG, stated that the next-gen JENNY builds on the company’s 20 years of expertise in the defense market and was built to offer higher performance, improved connectivity with peripheral devices and increased user-friendliness in a reduced form factor. “What we are presenting is a need for many of the forces outside there.”
The new solution provides rated power to up to 100 watts or 2,400 watt-hours, which is two times more than the current JENNY products offer.
“The best lithium-ion technology these days achieves roughly 200 to maybe 300-watt hours per kilogram. Our fuel cells exceed 1400,” Böhm states.
Florian Taschke, CTO of SFC Energy AG, asserts that soldiers “will be capable of doing silent watch operations for five-day missions without having a higher weight burden in terms of batteries carried in the field”.
As it weighs 1.7 kg (3 pounds) and integrates a direct methanol fuel cell and a battery in a compact housing, it can be stored in a backpack. The new capability also features components of the previous JENNY 600S and JENNY 1200 systems to reduce the logistical effort required for its deployment.
“We are producing our actual device in Germany as well as in India and planning to produce the new generation here in the US,” Taschke remarks.
