California Center for Sustainable Energy

Clean energy technology scaled down

It was standing room only when more than 300 people attended two workshops on combined heat and power fuel cells held at CCSE on March 8. The learning center was packed with architects, building contractors, facility managers and homeowners who were eager to learn about how fuel cell technology has been scaled down to fit homes and small businesses.

Fuel cells have been used widely for decades for self-generated energy in industry and large buildings, as well as in vehicles ranging from cars to the Space Shuttle and even handheld devices, but only recently have they entered the residential and small business marketplace in units ranging from one to five kilowatts.

Japan is aggressively pursuing fuel cell technology and has several programs that subsidize and facilitate the installation of units into homes. Thousands of one- kilowatt fuel cells have been installed to test and analyze their efficiency and accelerate commercialization. Several major Japanese utilities and oil and gas companies joined to develop a system called ENEFARM that has exceeded projected sales.

One of the main points of the workshop was to introduce a five- kilowatt, refrigerator-sized fuel cell manufactured by ClearEdge Power, a Hillsboro, Oregon-based company. They have installed units at several businesses and a few homes in California, but are just entering the San Diego marketplace. The ClearEdge5, which runs on natural gas, delivers 43,800 kWh of electricity per year and up to 20,000 BTU of heat per hour and sells for $56,000 plus installation. The expected life cycle is more than 20 years with overhauls of certain internal mechanisms every five years, according to company officials.

A big advantage of fuel cells is that they are much more efficient compared to conventional power generation systems, according to Bill Sproull, ClearEdge Power senior vice president of new business development.

In centralized power generation, about half the primary energy put into the system ends up as unused waste heat and nearly five percent is lost during transmission, resulting in an overall energy efficiency of 40-50 percent. Fuel cells create electricity and heat only where they are in demand, with an overall energy efficiency approaching 90 percent, Sproull said.

Other U.S. companies that manufacture distributed energy generation fuel cells are Bloom Energy, FuelCell Energy and UTC Power.

The workshop was organized by CCSE’s Ryan Amador, program manager for the Self-Generation Incentive Program ( SGIP). Fuel cells are eligible for substantial incentives from the program as well as other utility rebate programs and federal tax credits.

“A fuel cell of this size could supply most or all of the electrical needs for a typical family even during peak electrical demand periods,” Amador said. “Fuel cells are already powering hundreds of different applications, from large factories to cell phone towers, and now this clean energy source is available for wider application.”

The workshop presentations are available on CCSE’s website, and a display model of the ClearEdge5 is now an exhibit in the Energy Resource Center. For more information about ClearEdge Power’s fuel cells, visit their website.

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