UTC Power 400kW fuel cell (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Fuel cells powering cars are nearing their destination. But those used to provide electricity to the masses still have many miles to go. More practical, though, is using fuel cell technology to supply onsite power generation to specific businesses that cannot afford even a momentary outage.
To the extent that those enterprises derive their power from such onsite generation, the wear and tear on the electric grid is diminished and reliability is improved. Costs and technology are still hurdles. To overcome them, the industry needs to increase sales — a hard feat in today’s economic climate. To that end, the federal government could accelerate the technology by leveraging its buying power.
“Somehow and someway the industry has to achieve pricing parity with the incumbent technologies,” says Sam Logan, who is chairman of theFuel Cell Seminar and Exhibition. “The only way is to increase sales, production and volume, which would allow factories to operate more efficiently.”
Logan explained to this writer that the current tax credits provided to fuel cell makers will expire in 2016 and given the uncertain economic climate, it is improbable that such a broad expansion will occur before then. The credit now provided is $3,000 per kilowatt generated or 30 percent of the capital cost, whichever is less — something that may not get renewed in a bitterly divided Congress.
A better stimulus program would then have the federal government send huge orders to private businesses under multi-year contracts. Once that occurs, the wider market could then realize the benefits of those fuel cells used to generate power, says Logan.
Consider Whole Foods: It is aggressively trying to cut its energy consumption. Among the strategies that it is using to accomplish that is the installation of hydrogen-powered fuel cells at certain locations, all to provide 50-90 percent of its electricity. The same system can also be used as backup power in case those stores should get cut off from the grid.
The grocery chain, which purchased the fuel cells from United TechnologiesCorp., has installed the units at stores in Connecticut, California and Massachusetts. The energy is not just used for electricity but also to cool the refrigeration units and to heat the stores in the winter months.
Fuel cells work by separating hydrogen from oxygen. That process requires other fuel sources to break apart the elements. Right now, hydrogen is produced mainly from natural gas using steam reformation, which does nothing to limit the reliance on fossil fuels or the infrastructure that must carry them. The end product, however, is emissions free.
In some cases, fuel cells used for onsite power are the primary generators and in other cases, they are used to back up power delivered by the utility’s central generation. They are different from distributed generation that directly burn fuels and that are used to power whole campuses.
As for fuel cells, they have an electrical efficiency rate of 47 percent compared to 30-35 percent for legacy combustion systems, says FuelCell Energy. In combined heat and power applications, where the heat is captured and used, the result is an overall energy efficiency of up to 80 percent, it adds.
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