By Greentech Lead Team: FuelCell Energy, a
manufacturer of ultra-clean, efficient and reliable fuel cell power plants,
announced of a multi-year service agreement with Southern California Edison
(SCE) to operate and maintain the 1.4 megawatt Direct FuelCell power plant
located at California State University – San Bernardino.
FuelCell Energy offers
a comprehensive portfolio of services for fuel cell power plants with long term
service agreements. Field service technicians directly employed by FuelCell
Energy service the power plants on-site.
“The fuel cell power plant service agreements that
we offer allows our customers to focus on what they do best while we
concentrate on our core expertise of delivering ultra-clean power in an
efficient and reliable manner,” said Chip
Bottone, president and chief executive officer, FuelCell Energy.
California State University will purchase the ultra-clean
electricity produced by the fuel cell power plant from SCE under a power
purchase agreement. SCE will provide the high-grade heat generated by the fuel
cell to the University enabling University to save fuel costs by reducing usage
of a boiler for heating.
The ability of the fuel cell to generate both power and
heat from the same unit of fuel lessens the University’s usage of a
combustion-based boiler for heat, further reducing emissions.
The utility benefits from ultra-clean power generation
that supports clean air initiatives, highly efficient power generation that
reduces fuel costs, and on-site power generation, representing incremental capacity
that reduces the need to invest in transmission and distribution.
The fuel cell power plant releases virtually zero
pollutants and the high efficiency of the power generation process reduces
carbon emissions.
Recently, FuelCell Energy announced
a memorandum of understanding to form a German-based joint venture with
Fraunhofer IKTS (Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems) to develop the
market in Europe for Direct FuelCell (DFC) stationary power plants.