Advancing Fuel Cells into the Marketplace

Driven by the need to produce ever more power while reducing the harmful by products of conventional generating technologies, efforts to refine fuel cells and apply them to stationary electric power generation are now bearing fruit. Large-scale fuel cell power plants will soon be commercially available.

The stationary power fuel cell program is a worldwide program, with manufacturing facilities in the United States and demonstrations worldwide. The program enjoys extensive industry support with over 40 percent industry cost-sharing. DOE's Office of Fossil Energy supported the early development of PAFC technology, which is now in the early stages of commercialization. International Fuel Cells Corporation is currently offering 200-kilowatt PAFC power plants for sale worldwide.

Supported by DOE's Fossil Energy R&D Program, MCFC technology development has been undertaken primarily by two companies, Energy Research Corporation and M-C Power, which have developed different approaches to MCFC module construction. Both companies have advanced to the field demonstration stage: projects under way include a 250-kilowatt plant in San Diego, California, and a 2-megawatt plant in Santa Clara, California.

SOFC technology development has been led by Westinghouse Electric Corporation, which has developed a unique tubular SOFC system. SOFC systems up to 25 kilowatts have been tested since 1992 in the United States and Japan, and a 25-kilowatt demonstration plant is currently under way in Southern California. Field-testing of a 100-kilowatt plant is expected in 1996.

Full-size MCFC and SOFC power plants are expected to be commercially available shortly after 2000. The first plants will be smaller - up to 20 megawatts -and powered by natural gas. Later, as market acceptance and manufacturing capacity increase, larger natural gas plants will be available, in the 50-megawatt to 100-megawatt range. Early in the next century, a transition will occur to coal-gaspowered fuel cells, particularly for larger sized utility plants.

Natural-gas-powered MCFC and SOFC power plants will have significantly impacted the Nation's generating capacity market by the year 2010, and coal-gas-powered MCFC and SOFC plants will follow with significant market penetration by 2010. The use of coal-gaspowered fuel cell plants will increase as clean coal gas becomes available: the abundance of coal, coupled with its easy and safe transportability, make it the fuel of choice for long-term U.S. energy needs

The transition from natural gas to coal technologies dovetails with the anticipated effects of the Clean Air Act, which supports a near-term reduction in regulated emissions through the use of natural gas, while encouraging long-term utilization of coal, our most abundant fossil fuel.