Fuel Cells Could Hold the Answer to Our Energy Future

Aug 08 - Buffalo News-- By Timothy S. Carey

Last month, the fuel cell powering the Central Park Police Precinct in Manhattan set a record as the longest operating unit in the world. With more than 60,000 hours of operation, it was one of the few bright spots in the city during the famous blackout of 2003. It is certainly strange and implausible that we could go on thinking that unconventional power sources are unreliable when records such as this are set.

While it is true that wind and solar energy in New York State have an availability factor of between 20 and 30 percent (meaning that we would have to build as much as 500 megawatts of wind turbines or solar cells to arrive at 100 megawatts of firm capacity), fuel cells have an availability factor of 98 percent, which is on a par with conventional gas, oil and coal-fired electricity. Better still, fuel cells produce no harmful emissions and don't rely on imported oil.

Indeed, the benefits of fuel cells are nothing short of spectacular. A 200-kilowatt fuel cell that the New York Power Authority installed at a wastewater treatment plant in Yonkers generates about 1.6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year and releases only 72 pounds of emissions to the environment. This compares with average emissions of about 41,000 pounds produced by coal- and oil-fueled power plants generating the same amount of electricity.

The Yonkers fuel cell runs on a waste gas that traditional wastewater treatment plants flare off into the environment. In so doing, it transforms wastewater treatment into a kind of industrial ecosystem that not only eliminates methane emissions but also uses the waste heat from power production to heat and cool the building, earning the project and the Power Authority the 2000 Environmental Project of the Year award from the Association of Energy Engineers and the U.S. EPA Energy Star Certificate in 2004.

We've since installed seven more fuel cells at wastewater treatment plants in New York City, not to mention five fuel cells at other locations. They include a hospital in the Bronx, the New York Aquarium in Coney Island and a molten carbonate fuel cell at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, which displaces 3,500 imported barrels of oil a year.

The military is also an enthusiastic user of fuel cells, since they weigh two-thirds less and operate 10 times longer than conventional batteries. Fuel cells have found their way into soldiers' thermal imaging devices, radios, night-vision goggles and hand-held computers and are often the only power source in field hospitals and bivouacs.

Small, efficient, easy to site and invariably clean, fuel cells - if mass produced - could make on-site power generation the norm. To help ensure their adoption, Gov. George E. Pataki established a $1,500 tax credit for fuel cells of up to 100 kilowatts in capacity.

And since fuel cells can operate with such domestic fuels as hydrogen, natural gas and methane, they are a sound strategy in helping us achieve our energy independence: For every 580 kilowatt- hours of electricity produced by fuel cells, we displace one barrel of imported of oil.

For that reason, much of the attention in fuel cell research has been focused on cars. In terms of basic technology, the transition would be a fairly simple one: The same fuel cells that might power a home could be placed in smaller, relatively lightweight stacks under the hood. Competitive fuel cell vehicles should be available in 15 years.

A research consortium spearheaded by the Bush administration called FreedomCAR promises to do for fuel cells and hydrogen what the Manhattan Project did for atomic energy. Its outcome will likely be cars and trucks that are not only pollution-free but also cheaper to operate and maintain. Of course, that will require a new filling station infrastructure, improvements in hydrogen storage and the development of new skills by auto mechanics.

As our energy future is now presented in dark hues, a brighter tomorrow beckons with fuel cells powering everything from cars to homes to computers.

Timothy S. Carey is the president and chief executive officer of the New York Power Authority.