Marubeni Announces Siting of Direct FuelCell(R) Power Plant at Tokyo 'Super Eco Town'
DANBURY, Conn. and TOKYO, Nov 9, 2004 PRNewswire-FirstCall
The Marubeni Corporation (TSE: 8002) and FuelCell Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq: FCEL), announced the siting of a 250-kilowatt Direct FuelCell(R) (DFC(R)) power plant to operate on anaerobic digester gas from a food recycling facility at the Tokyo "Super Eco Town" Project in Japan. Marubeni, Asian partner of fuel cell developer FuelCell Energy, will supply the power plant to Bioenergy Co. of Japan who will own and operate the unit. The DFC power plant will provide approximately 50 percent of the facility's base load electricity requirements, and the heat will be converted to process steam for the recycling operations. Shipment is expected in the first half of calendar 2005.
"Marubeni continues to pioneer new applications for our DFC products, and this is our first power plant to operate on anaerobic digester gas from food recycling," said Herbert T. Nock, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales of FuelCell Energy, Inc. "This project and the Japanese Ministry's 'Biomass Nippon' funding program provides an excellent opportunity to expand our wastewater vertical market to food processing."
The recycling facility to be constructed by Bioenergy Co. will be the largest methane gas fermentation power plant in Japan with a processing capacity of 110 tons per day. It will be the world's first project to generate and market power from fuel cells using methane produced exclusively from the fermentation of organic waste from a large metropolitan area.
Under Japan's Food Recycling Law enacted in 2001, all business entities in the food industry are obliged to reduce or recycle food waste by more than 20 percent by 2006. Power generation through methane fermentation of food waste streams is a method that is authorized by the regulation.
This installation will receive incentive funding from the Ministry of Agriculture and represents the first project awarded under its Biomass Nippon Strategy Program. This program has a budget of over $200 million for food recycling projects, including fuel cell power plants. Japan recently adopted a national renewable portfolio standard with a target of 1.5 percent or over 3,000 megawatts of power generation from solar, wind, geothermal, small hydro and biomass (including anaerobic digestion whose gas by-product can be used as a fuel for fuel cell power plants) by 2010. A 2002 study by the Energy Conservation Center entitled, "Bioenergy - Effective Utilization of Ecosystem Resources and Waste," estimated there is over 2,000 megawatts of potential fuel cell power generation from anaerobic digester gas from wastewater treatment plants in Japan.
The Tokyo Super Eco-Town project builds on Marubeni's success in providing clean, efficient DFC technology to customers throughout the Asia/Pacific market in the utility, industrial, commercial and municipal market sectors. These customers include Kirin, the City of Fukuoka, JAPEX, Epson, Kawasaki and POSCO, among others.
About Direct FuelCells
Direct FuelCells efficiently generate clean electricity at distributed customer locations, including hospitals, schools, universities, hotels and other commercial and industrial facilities, as well as grid-support applications for utility customers. Direct FuelCells convert readily available fuels, such as natural gas or waste gas, to electrical power with greater efficiency than any competing technology of comparable size, including other fuel cells. This high-efficiency technology generates more electric power from less fuel and has the lowest emissions of any fossil based electric generating technology because the fuel is not burned. DFC power plants can be sited at or near users, and the heat byproduct can be used for cogeneration applications such as district heating, hot water or absorption chilling for air conditioning. Depending upon location, application and load size, the Company's DFC power plants in a cogeneration configuration can achieve an overall energy efficiency of between 70 and 80 percent. The sub-megawatt fuel cell power plant is a collaborative effort using Direct FuelCell(R) technology of FuelCell Energy and the Hot Module(R) balance of plant design of MTU CFC Solutions, GmbH, a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler.
About Tokyo Super Eco Town
Tokyo Metropolitan Government launched the Super Eco-Town Project to promote the transformation of current society into a recycling-based society. Under the project, the Metropolitan government invited private businesses in the Tokyo waterfront area for the development of waste treatment and recycling.
About Bioenergy Co. of Japan
Ichikawa Kankyo Engineering Co., Kaname Kogyo Co. and San-R (3R, subsidiary company of Mitsubishi Corporation) have jointly established a new company, called Bioenergy Co (http://www.bio-energy.co.jp/outline/index.php)
About Marubeni
The Marubeni Corporation (http://www.marubeni.co.jp/english/index.html), established in 1858, is one of Japan's leading general trading/marketing houses (sogo shosha). The Company was ranked as the 25th largest in Fortune Magazine's Global Fortune 500 list for 2002. Marubeni has 12 Divisions with operations that encompass domestic, import/export, offshore trade and investment activities, which range from the development of natural resources to the retail marketing of finished products. The Company, based in Tokyo, conducts these operations through a worldwide business network that includes 52 overseas corporate offices and 28 overseas subsidiaries, for a total of 131 offices in 73 countries.
Marubeni's Utility & Infrastructure Division has been involved in the development of over 20,000 megawatts of power generation worldwide. The Division has expanded its efforts to include distributed generation technologies, power quality & reliability technologies and energy & environmental services.
About FuelCell Energy, Inc.
FuelCell Energy, Inc., based in Danbury, Connecticut, is a world leader in the development and manufacture of high temperature fuel cells for clean electric power generation. The Company has developed commercial distribution alliances for its carbonate Direct FuelCell products with world class companies such as Marubeni Corporation in Asia; MTU CFC Solutions in Europe; Enbridge Inc. in Canada; Caterpillar, PPL Energy Plus, Chevron Energy Solutions, Alliance Power and LOGANEnergy in the U.S. FuelCell Energy developed its patented Direct FuelCell technology for stationary power plants with the U.S. Department of Energy through its Office of Fossil Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory. FuelCell Energy delivered its first commercially available DFC300A power plant in January 2003. Through mid- October 2004, over 51 million kilowatt hours of electricity have been generated from power plants incorporating its DFC technology at customer sites throughout the world.
FuelCell Energy is also developing next generation high temperature fuel cell products, such as a diesel fueled marine Ship Service Fuel Cell, a combined-cycle DFC/Turbine(R) power plant and solid oxide fuel cells for applications up to 100 kilowatts. More information is available at http://www.fuelcellenergy.com .
This news release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the Company's plans and expectations regarding the development and commercialization of its fuel cell technology. All forward- looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Factors that could cause such a difference include, without limitation, the risk that commercial field trials of the Company's products will not occur when anticipated, general risks associated with product development, manufacturing, changes in the utility regulatory environment, potential volatility of energy prices, rapid technological change, and competition, as well as other risks set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change in the Company's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
SOURCE FuelCell Energy, Inc.
Investor and Media: Steven P. Eschbach, CFA, FuelCell Energy, Inc., +1-203-825-6000, seschbach@fce.com
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