2nd Euro Power Plant with Direct FuelCell Technology to Start Up in October
31 May 2000
Fuel cells in power plant to be manufactured by FuelCell Energy, Inc
DANBURY, Conn., and BAD NEUSTADT, Germany - FuelCell Energy (Amex: FCL) will be supplying the fuel cells for a power plant to be built at a hospital in Germany. The Rhone Klinikum, in Bad Neustadt will be the first hospital in the world to use FuelCell Energy's Direct FuelCell (TM) (DFC(R)) technology. All the fuel cells for the project will be manufactured at FuelCell Energy's manufacturing plant in Torrington, Connecticut, and shipped to Germany for installation and a planned October start-up of the power plant."We have long believed a hospital setting is an ideal market-entry application for our products due to the need for steady, high-quality electricity and heat," said Jerry D. Leitman, president and CEO of FuelCell Energy. "This field trial will be the first effort by ourselves and our European partner, MTU, a Daimler Chrysler company, at installing and operating our DFC technology at a medical facility and we look forward to helping the customer realize the benefits of our clean, quiet electric power generators."
About the project
The fuel cells manufactured by FuelCell Energy during the summer will be installed in a "Hot Module", a power plant configuration developed by FuelCell Energy's German partner MTU, a DaimlerChysler company. It is the second Hot Module to be installed. The first, which began operation in November 1999, is at the campus of the University of Bielefeld in Germany.
The DFC is especially suitable for operation at a hospital. Hospitals are large consumers of electricity and heat, requiring approximately one percent of Germany's total electricity. Hospitals in Germany currently use widespread technology for power and heat in the form of a district heating/power station. The DFC offers additional advantages including quiet operation, no pollution and extremely high efficiency - the highest of any fossil fuel generator in that size. In addition, the DFC produces high-quality electricity, which is very important for computer systems and sensitive medical devices that are used by hospitals. For heating, the power plant will provide steam with a temperature of about 200(degree)C.
About FuelCell Energy
FuelCell Energy, Inc. - formerly Energy Research Corp., is a world-recognized leader for development and commercialization of high efficiency fuel cells for electric power generation. The Company's Direct FuelCell technology eliminates external fuel processing to extract hydrogen from a hydrocarbon fuel. This results in a product whose cost combined with high efficiency, simplicity and reliability, results in product advantages for stationary power generation. FuelCell Energy is based in Danbury, Conn. The Company has been developing DFC technology for stationary power plants with the U.S. Department of Energy through the National Energy Technology Laboratory, whose advanced fuel cell research program is focused on developing a new generation of high performance fuel cells that can generate clean electricity at power stations or in distributed locations near the customer.
