North Central Bronx Hospital has just become one of the first medical facilities in the country to generate electricity from a fuel cell power plant, a nonpolluting source of power that uses an electrochemical process without combustion. The power plant was installed by the New York Power Authority (NYPA), which feels this cutting-edge technology will play an important role in the future as a source of environmentally benign, reliable power, particularly suitable for institutions like hospitals that have zero tolerance for power glitches.
The $900,000 fuel cell, co-funded with a $200,000 grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE), is supplementing the electricity the hospital ordinarily receives from the electric power grid. It will also provide backup power, along with the medical facility’s emergency diesel generators. The 200-kilowatt fuel cell uses natural gas to produce electricity. Hydrogen obtained from the fuel combines with oxygen in the air to produce the power, with the only emissions being water and heat.
The NYPA had previously installed fuel cells—also co-funded by the DOE—at the Central Park Police Precinct in Manhattan and the Westchester County Wastewater Treatment Plant in Yonkers. The Central Park unit totally replaced the use of the electric power grid. The unit in Yonkers supplements the power the facility receives from the grid as well as from a roof-mounted solar power project installed by the NYPA. The Yonkers unit is the world’s first commercial fuel cell to use anaerobic digester gas, a byproduct of wastewater treatment, to produce electricity. The NYPA ranks among the cleanest electric utilities in the nation, with most of its electricity from hydropower. In addition to the fuel cells, it has installed 18 solar power projects for public customers in various parts of the state.
Based on a report from the DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network (EREN)
