Cold Comfort: Fuel Cells Power through Snow, Ice, Rain

In the eternal battle between man and the elements, man almost always takes the sucker punch. According to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a DOE research facility operated by the University of California, the annual cost of power interruptions in the United States alone is $80 billion or more. 

However, when Hurricane Irene blasted through the Northeast this past August, despite her best efforts, she could not stop fuel cells from providing clean, reliable power to business and telecom sites during the storm, points out Fuel Cells 2000, a non-profit project outreach organization based in Washington, D.C. In late October, Winter Storm Alfred dealt a second blow and fuel cells again eased the burden.

What exactly are fuel cells? They use the chemical energy of fuel to generate electricity without combustion. The process is inherently efficient and environmentally clean. The only emissions from the fuel cell itself are water and waste heat, which can be captured and put to use. A fuel cell can be seen as an electrochemical engine, and will produce both electricity and heat as long as fuel is supplied.

Today, an increasing number of companies are installing fuel cells to generate onsite primary or back-up power for their buildings, data centers, and cell towers, Fuel cells are delivering highly efficient power, or combined heat and power (CHP) to these sites and – importantly – they can continue to generate power during grid power failures and permit a company to continue its operations.

Fuel cells are inherently efficient, with electrical efficiencies between 40 and 60 percent. When the waste heat is captured in a CHP configuration, overall energy efficiency can be 85 percent or higher. That waste heat can be used for space heating, hot water; or even cooling, air conditioning, or refrigeration. Some fuel cells are designed to operate in water-balance, with no consumption or discharge of water in normal operations. One manufacturer’s 400-kilowatt (kW) fuel cell system can save around 1.6 million gallons of water per year compared to the U.S. electric grid.

Most fuel cells in the field operate on natural gas or pure hydrogen, but some fuel cells also have the ability to run on propane or a renewable fuel source such as anaerobic digester gas or other biogas. This allows customers with organic remnants of daily processes—such as effluent from beer- and wine-making, or animal waste from industrial farming— to eliminate the expense of removing the waste and instead use it to power their facilities. This not only reduces costs and emissions, but can also add to a company’s public and “green” image.

Fuel cells generate low to zero emissions, depending on the fuel source, and are exempt from air quality permitting in numerous states. They also are extremely quiet, so they can be installed indoors or outdoors without noise disruption. What’s more, in many cities, where solar and wind power are not an option due to lack of space and inadequate access to the elements, fuel cells provide constant power and flexible siting

Adobe , for example, took advantage of fuel cells’ smaller footprint and installed a 1.2-MW o on the roof of the parking garage of the company’s San Jose, California headquarters. Fuel cells also work in combination with other renewable technologies and can serve as energy storage to provide power for times when the sun isn’t shining or wind isn’t blowing.

Reliability is another big selling point for fuel cells. Fuel cells —which can be grid connected or grid-independent —can be configured so that they continue to provide power when the grid fails. During Hurricane Irene, which pummeled the East Coast in August 2011, the Whole Foods Market in Glastonbury, Connecticut, was able to keep its coolers running with its with its 200-kW UTC Power fuel cell. During a recent catastrophic power outage in Southern California, one of the only buildings in San Diego that retained power was the Albertsons Market, which had fuel cell is capable of operating independently of the grid —and was able to kept the lights on and food fresh.

Telecommunications companies such as AT&T, MetroPCS, Motorola, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon are turning to fuel cells for back-up power to cell tower sites and switching stations because they last longer than batteries, are extremely reliable, and can be sited in rugged terrain and extreme weather climates.  During these two major storms, thousands of cell sites were without power for extended periods.  Fuel cells were able to keep critical communications running.

Fuel cell manufacturer ReliOn of Spokane, Washington, reports that one customer in the affected area during Hurricane Irene had fifty-six cell towers with fuel cells installed for backup power. Forty-five of those sites experienced grid power outages in excess of six hours during the storm and the 45 ReliOn (News - Alert) fuel cell systems successfully provided power to the communications equipment for a cumulative outage time of 725 hours.  Average duration per site was 16 hours, with the maximum single outage duration being 50 hours. ReliOn also gives credit to its bulk hydrogen refueling provider, Air Products of Hopewell Junction, New York, for helping to keep these sites operational.  ReliOn fuel cells have also been crucial to provide cellular service for those without power from Winter Storm Alfred.

What’s more, South Windsor High School in South Windsor, Connecticut, is a designated emergency shelter because of its 200-kW UTC Power fuel cell wired for grid independence.

In fact, in the wake of Winter Storm Alfred, Connecticut lawmakers are proposing, among other things, to increase the use of fuel cells throughout Connecticut to provide more electricity that is "off the grid.''

To find out more about fuel cells, see the recent Fuel Cells 2000 r report, The Business Case for Fuel Cells 2011:  Energizing America’s Top Companies.