TECHNOLOGY FOR CHANGE

Fuel Cells Provide Campus Power

R. Colin Johnson | Date: 12-14-10 | Comments

The University of California at San Diego is building one of the world's largest fuel cells in hopes of generating up to 95 percent of its own power with a 2.8-MegaWatt fuel cell�the largest of its kind on a university campus. Can corporate campuses be far behind

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Fuel Cells Provide Campus Power
One of the world's largest fuel cell arrays�2.8 MegaWatts�will be installed in San Diego's Energy Innovation Park at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) campus. FuelCell Energy (Danbury, Conn.) is installing the giant fuel cell capable of powering 2,800 homes�along with two others in the city of San Diego�to provide a renewable store of electricity. In cooperation with the city of San Diego and BioFuels Energy there, the project will turn methane from wastewater into electricity.

The nearby Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant will pipeline the purified methane bio-gas to the three fuel cells constructed by FuelCell Energy. The commercial-grade fuel cells combine the methane fuel with oxygen in an electrochemical process that directly produces electricity for the grid without combustion. A methanol solution carries the reactant to the cell without the need for steam formation; carbon dioxide and water vapor are the only byproducts.

Direct FuelCell power plants comprise three major functional elements: Electrical Balance of Plant, Mechanical Balance of Plant and Fuel Cell Modules (source: FuelCell Energy).

UCSD already generates 85 percent of its own power from a natural-gas-fired cogeneration unit, which operates at 66 percent efficiency by harnessing the plant's waste heat. The waste heat is used to produce steam for heating, ventilation and air conditioning for the sprawling 12.5 million square feet of floor space in campus buildings.

Next: Nearly Double the Efficiency >>

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