DANBURY, CONN.—FuelCell Energy Inc., a leading manufacturer of efficient, ultra-clean power plants using renewable and domestic fuels for commercial and industrial customers, announced that its modular 300-kilowatt (kW) Direct FuelCell (DFC) power plant (DFC300MA) has met the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) stringent distributed generation emissions standards for 2007.
An earlier model of the DFC300MA, which was capable of producing 250 kW of power, had previously attained this certification. Through the incorporation of an advanced cell stack design, FuelCell Energy achieved a 20 percent increase in power output this past fall which required the plant to be recertified to the CARB emissions standard. By meeting this standard, the company’s newest DFC300MA power plant, which will begin shipping to customers in California in the second calendar quarter, is categorized as an ‘ultra-clean’ distributed generation technology, exempting it from air quality district permitting requirements.
Fuel cells and other ultra-clean products meet these requirements, while combustion equipment generally does not. In addition, the CARB certification qualifies the company’s products for preferential rate treatment by the California Public Utilities Commission, including the elimination of exit fees and standby charges for customer electric generation.
Power Plants Now More Efficient
“California is one of the largest power consumers in the world so it is critical for us to design products that meet its requirements,” says William Karambelas, FuelCell Energy’s Vice President of Business Development, Western Region. “With this certification, we once again demonstrate our corporate commitment to delivering ultra-clean, efficient power plants. We significantly increased the power output of the DFC300MA while reducing production costs and maintaining our low emissions standards—a significant achievement by our technical and manufacturing teams.”
In September 2006, California passed Assembly Bill 32 which requires rolling back greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020—25 percent lower than today’s levels. DFC power plants emit almost no nitrogen oxide (NOX) and sulfur oxide (SOX) pollutants and much lower levels of carbon dioxide than competing technologies because fuel is produced from an electrochemical reaction, not burned. Higher electrical efficiency means that less fuel is needed to run the power plant and greenhouse gas emissions are lower. The electrical efficiency of a DFC300MA unit is up to 47 percent better than other power plants of its size.
The California Self Generation Program provides over $80 million per year of incentive funding for renewable and ultra-clean technologies on the basis of $2500/kW for DFC products operating on natural gas and $4500/kW for DFC products operating on renewable fuels such as anaerobic gas from wastewater treatment facilities. FuelCell Energy’s megawatt class DFC1500MA power plant was previously certified under the CARB standards in September 2004.
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