Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) has become the latest energy giant to step up its interest in combined heat and power (CHP) technologies, announcing yesterday that it has formed a joint venture with fuel cell specialist Intelligent Energy to address the market.

The two companies said that the new 50:50 joint venture, called IE CHP Ltd, will focus on developing a fuel cell-based CHP system for the light industrial, commercial and residential markets in the UK and Ireland.

SSE said that it would initially invest £1m in the company and pledged to make a series of further "phased investments" once it meets certain undisclosed milestones.

Ian Marchant, chief executive of SSE, said that the joint venture, which follows last month's €1.1bn takeover of wind farm operator Airtricity, underlined the company's commitment to expanding its portfolio of clean energy businesses. He added that Intelligent Energy's fuel cell technology was particularly suited to the growing CHP market.

The two companies said that Intelligent Energy would provide the joint venture with access to its fuel cell and hydrogen generation technologies, while SSE would take the systems to its customer base and provide the joint venture with its sales and marketing expertise.

The move follows similar announcements earlier this year from British Gas and E.ON that saw both companies bolster their commitment to the CHP market.

British Gas parent Centrica announced plans to fork out £20m for around a 10 per cent stake in fuel cell-powered CHP specialist Ceres Power and pledged to fund a commercial launch of the company's CHP generators, while E.ON inked a deal with Energetix Group to trial micro CHP units in UK homes.