FuelCell Energy Concludes Most Successful Demonstration of Direct FuelCell Power Plant
20 June 2000
Danbury facility to be refitted for fuel cell/turbine power plant
DANBURY, Conn. - FuelCell Energy, Inc. has completed the successful operation of the 250 kW Direct FuelCell power plant at its Danbury, Connecticut facility.The grid-connected power plant met or exceeded its program goals and will be taken off-line on June 30, 2000. The fuel cell module will be disassembled for post-operation analysis. The balance-of-plant will be prepared for the installation of another DFC module and a gas turbine later this year to demonstrate a very high efficiency DFC/Turbine hybrid power plant.
"This was the most successful power plant we ever operated and it confirms the efficacy of our commercial cell and module design, as well as the overall direction of our commercialization program," said Dr. Hans C. Maru, executive vice president at FuelCell Energy. "The operational experience and data will be applied to upcoming field trials that we and our partners have planned over the next 18 months."
"I am extremely proud of our team here at FuelCell Energy, from R&D to manufacturing to power plant operations," said Jerry D. Leitman, president and CEO. "This unit delivered everything it was supposed to, including clean power to our building and the grid, long-term operational data for us and our partners at the Department of Energy and further validation of our technical approach toward fuel cell commercialization. It was truly a significant milestone."
Dr. Mark Williams, Fuel Cells Product Manager for DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory added, "The grid-connected operation of this fuel cell unit is an important step in the development and commercialization of FCE's fuel cell technology."
Power plant statistics
The DFC power plant began operation in February 1999 and was scheduled for six months of operation. It has actually run for 15 months, logging a total of 11,800 hours to date. During its operation, the power plant has generated more than 1.8 million kilowatt-hours of electricity to the building. For most of this period, it has operated in an unattended mode, with the exception of initial start-up and scheduled shut-downs and re-starts, which were part of the demonstration program.
The power plant reached a maximum power of 263 kW. Emissions were negligible and below requirements under the Clean Air standard.
Facility to be prepared for next demonstration
The fuel cell stack will undergo comprehensive post-operation inspection to derive design input for upcoming field trials and market entry units.
Under a June award by the DOE Office of Fossil Energy's Vision 21 Program, the balance-of-plant equipment that supports the fuel cell module will be modified to accommodate both a fuel cell and a gas turbine. The company is planning to build a high-efficiency fuel cell/turbine hybrid power plant. A goal of the program is the development of an ultra-high-efficiency power plant using a fuel cell and a turbine which is powered by waste heat from the fuel cell. The basic DFC/Turbine hybrid system design was developed in an earlier cost-shared DOE program, which showed that near-term electrical efficiencies of 65 to 72 percent could be obtained. The Vision 21 Program will extend that system design concept to very high efficiency systems (near 80%) utilizing a higher efficiency version of the company's DFC. The project focus will be the development of a 40MW design, and the sub-scale test of the hybrid system in the stack test facility will generate engineering data to support that design.
Update on other endurance test
The Company has also been operating a sub-scale, 8 kilowatt DFC stack as part of a planned two-year endurance test. This unit has logged 16,000 hours on multiple types of fuels, and has been subjected to numerous start-stop tests, further verifying the longevity and fuel versatility of DFC technology. This fuel cell stack is scheduled to be shut down later this summer after two years (17,000 hours) of operation.
About FuelCell Energy, Inc.
FuelCell Energy, Inc. - www.fce.com - 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.
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the Company's plans and expectations regarding the development and commercialization of its fuel cell technology. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Factors that could cause such a difference include, without limitation, the risk that commercial field trials of the Company's products will not occur when anticipated, general risks associated with product development, manufacturing, changes in the utility regulatory environment, potential volatility of energy prices, rapid technological change, and competition, as well as other risks set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change in the Company's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.