May 9, 2005—FuelCell Energy Inc. has announced that one of its 250-kilowatt Direct FuelCell power plants will supply power as part of the electric grid servicing a school, a hospital, apartment buildings and city hall in a planned, renewable energy community on the western coast of Japan.
In keeping with the Kyoto Eco-Energy organization’s desire to balance intermittent power generated by sources such as wind and solar, a 250 kilowatt DFC plant will convert waste from a food processing plant into high quality electricity, the company says. Heat energy produced by the power plant also will be used to warm water flowing into the food waste digestion process, thus increasing overall system efficiency.
Kyotango City’s DFC power plant is part of an 850-kilowatt mini-grid consisting of the fuel cell unit, a wind turbine, photovoltaics and gas engines connected in parallel to the local electrical grid.
Acknowledging the environmental advantages of the project, Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) is supporting the capital and installation cost.
For more information, visit the FuelCell Web site.
