| Press Release Archive
City Council approves purchase of fuel
cell; first commercial use of technology
in Austin
The Austin City Council approved today the
purchase by Austin Energy of a 200-kilowatt fuel cell that
will be used for the first commercial application in Austin
of this innovative technology.
The $1.2 million fuel cell - which uses
natural gas to produce electricity with hot water as a byproduct
- will be installed and generating electricity by next summer
at the Rebekah Baines Johnson Dental Clinic, 15 Waller St.,
near Town Lake. The fuel cell - which can generate enough
electricity to power 40 homes - will provide electricity for
the RBJ facility and waste heat from the generation will warm
water, displacing the energy presently required to run a boiler
that provides the facility with heated water.
Because it reuses waste heat for another
application, the fuel cell - which is about 18 feet long and
10 feet wide - operates at 85 percent efficiency. It also
has minimal emissions. The basic concept of a fuel cell is
over a century old. A fuel cell runs on hydrogen extracted
from natural gas. The hydrogen reacts with oxygen to create
voltage. In other words, electricity is created by a chemical
reaction rather than a combustion action, which means the
fuel cell acts essentially like a battery but is always charged.
Although the cost for fuel cells is still
high compared to traditional generation, technological advances
are driving the price down and make it appealing in certain
commercial applications such as in the hi-tech industry. The
First Bank of Omaha, Nebraska, for example, has been using
several fuel cells as its primary source of power to process
millions of dollars in credit card transactions every hour.
The installation of the fuel cell at the
RBJ facility is the first of several pilot projects being
undertaken by Austin Energy to study what is known as distributed
generation - or stand-alone generation at a customer's site.
Distributed generation, such as fuel cells, microturbines
and flywheels, may someday become a viable source of power
and revolutionize the electric industry.
For more information, contact Ed
Clark, Public Information.
Phone: (512) 322-6514
Pager: (512) 802-2000
|
