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Industry News
November 10, 2010
FirstEnergy and Ballard Begin Demonstration of 1MW Mobile Fuel Cell System
FirstEnergy Corp. and Ballard Power Systems are testing what they describe as an innovative utility-scale fuel cell system designed to produce one megawatt of electricity – enough to power more than 600 homes. The demonstration is being conducted at the FirstEnergy plant in Eastlake, Ohio.
Considered the world’s largest proton exchange membrane hydrogen-powered fuel cell generator, the 54-foot-long unit is housed in a tractor-trailer for mobility and produces only water and heat as by-products. Over the next five years, the companies will test performance of the system in real-world operating conditions to better understand its capability to provide generating capacity during peak usage periods in the months of May through September. In addition, the operating data will be evaluated in collaboration with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).
"Finding new sources of clean, renewable peaking energy is important for meeting our customers’ energy needs and increasingly stringent environmental requirements," said Gary R. Leidich, Executive Vice President for FirstEnergy Corp. and President of FirstEnergy Generation. "This fuel cell system has the added benefit of being mobile, so it can provide peaking power when and where it’s needed."
The system is comprised of nine fuel cell modules, a compressor compartment that provides air for the fuel cell reaction, an inverter compartment that converts the power for 640Vdc to 380Vac and a transformer to step up the voltage to 480V, three-phase ac power to the electrical system.
"Deploying our CLEARgen™ system with FirstEnergy provides an opportunity to demonstrate performance in a utility-scale peak power application," said Michael Goldstein, Ballard’s Chief Commercial Officer. "With the increasing interest in clean energy solutions, we are seeing demand for this scalable product across a number of different distributed power generation applications."
Opinion: Bridging the Gap between Off-Grid and Grid-Tied Systems with a Grid-Hybrid Approach
Ballard’s hydrogen-powered proton exchange membrane fuel cells combine hydrogen fuel and oxygen from the air to produce electrical energy efficiently, quietly and without combustion. The only by-products are water and heat. Because it uses hydrogen as fuel, the system is considered renewable in Ohio.
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