FuelCell Energy To Supply 1.4 MW Power Plant To A California Utility For Ultra-clean Power Generation At California State University, San Bernardino

DANBURY, Conn., Feb. 1, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FuelCell Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq:FCEL) a leading manufacturer of ultra-clean, efficient and reliable power plants using renewable and other fuels for commercial, industrial, government, and utility customers today announced that Southern California Edison Company (SCE) has ordered a 1.4 megawatt (MW) DFC1500 fuel cell power plant to install as a utility-owned fuel cell on the campus of California State University, San Bernardino. The ultra-clean electricity generated by the power plant will interconnect into the existing SCE distribution grid. The distributed generation attribute of fuel cells enables SCE to add power generating capacity at the point of use without a commensurate investment in the transmission and distribution grid. 

"Southern California Edison is committed to environmental protection, and our power generation includes more alternate and renewable energy than nearly any other utility," said Mark Nelson, director of Generation Planning and Strategy for Southern California Edison. "Ultra-clean and reliable power generation from this fuel cell power plant will help us meet the needs of our customers while also illustrating our efforts at improving the air quality in our service territory."

Distributed generation provides power at the point of use, lessening reliance on the electrical transmission grid and represents incremental capacity that avoids or reduces investment in the transmission and distribution system. Actions taken by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to promote the adoption of clean distributed generation power sources are intended to improve power quality and reliability, increase energy efficiency and enhance energy independence. In the spring of 2010, the CPUC authorized Southern California Edison and another California utility to pursue utility owned fuel cell installations at California universities, recognizing fuel cells as preferred resources due to clean fossil fuel generation and distributed generation.

This DFC1500 installation will use natural gas as the fuel source to generate ultra-clean electricity utilizing an electrochemical reaction. Due to the absence of combustion, virtually zero pollutants are emitted such as NOx, SOx or particulate matter. Additionally, the fuel cell power generation process is highly efficient, generating more power from a given unit of fuel and lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to combustion based power sources in a similar size range.