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Any installed experience with fuel cells?

Z Smith

Principal | Director of Sustainability & Building Performance

Eskew+Dumez+Ripple

LEEDuser Premium Member

4 thumbs up

April 25, 2019

Just had a contractor call who said they had a university client interested in using natural-gas-fed fuel cells as an alternative to grid power in some applications. They were interested in an intermediate scale: 300kW.

Anyone with any experience with these devices?

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Mark Maddalina

Principal, Sustainable Design Director

SWBR

LEEDuser Premium Member

0 thumbs up

Thu, 04/25/2019 - 18:05

We had incorporated a 400kW NG fuel cell by UTC in a project. I can share with you some of our information, a student research presentation on it and I can connect you with our Engineer if you'd like more details.

Teresa Rainey

Interface Engineering

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Thu, 04/25/2019 - 18:09

Hi Z, Yes, we installed natural-gas fed fuel cells for a client in New York. Bloomenergy offers a financing program that helps address the typical first cost challenge.

Jeffrey Keilman

Senior Associate

Perkins+Will

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Thu, 04/25/2019 - 18:16

We explored a natural gas fuel cell for Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital but the team collectively opted for a 250 kW gas-fired co-generation unit. Besides first costs the biggest driver was the inability to find a use for the heat generation associated with the fuel cell. It generated far more heat than the project required. Happy to discuss further as you evaluate options.

Bryna Dunn

Vice President

Moseley Architects

LEEDuser Premium Member

10 thumbs up

Thu, 04/25/2019 - 18:29

I would also be interested in the information you are able to share. Thank you!

Z Smith

Principal | Director of Sustainability & Building Performance

Eskew+Dumez+Ripple

LEEDuser Premium Member

4 thumbs up

Thu, 04/25/2019 - 22:20

OK: Sounds like people are hoping for more specifics, but may be wary of naming names. If everyone could send data to me via e-mail (zsmith@eskewdumezripple.com) I will anonymize ("System A", "System B"...) it and post the results. I think people would like to know:

System capacity (electric kW and MBtu/h thermal output)
Natural gas input (MBtu/h) to achieve this electric and thermal output (these help imply a system efficiency)
Operating cost per kWh if you only have use for the electricity
Installed first cost (and what year the system was priced or bid)
Headaches or other lessons learned

Thanks!

Donald Posson

Vice President

SmithGroup

LEEDuser Premium Member

0 thumbs up

Fri, 04/26/2019 - 22:38

We have a project under construction at Caltech in Pasadena CA that incorporated a 1000 kW natural gas-fired fuel cell (manufactured by Bloom Energy). Caltech has five existing Bloom fuels cells installed on campus (total capacity of 3,100 kW capacity) and the new unit will take their capacity to 4,100 kW. You can have your client contact John Onderdonk at Caltech (john.onderdonk@caltech.edu) as he was the Dir of Sustainability at the time and he coordinated getting the fuel cells approved, on campus and he coordinated the Interconnection agreement with the local utility and utility incentives & rebates.