Fuel cell technology to be developed in East Tennessee
East Tennessee will be the location of demonstration fuel cell technology developed by Silicon Valley-based Bloom Energy.
Bloom Energy’s demonstration site will be able to generate 100 kilowatts of electricity that could be a precursor to the potential siting of a manufacturing facility in Tennessee.
The system will be at the Electric Power Board headquarters in Chattanooga and will be close to a final version that Bloom Energy plans to introduce in the broader market later this year, according to CEO KR Sridhar, who announced the planned installation Wednesday at the Tennessee Valley Corridor Summit. Chattanooga also is home to a 5 kilowatt installation made by Bloom Energy near the University of Tennessee. That system has been in place for two years.
Bloom Energy, which has kept development of the “solid oxide fuel system” close to the vest, has spent several years and $250 million developing the fuel cell technology, according to industry reports. The units are “fuel agnostic,” Sridhar said, meaning they can be powered by a variety of inputs, including biomass and natural gas.
The project is receiving funding through a federal appropriation as well as support from the Electric Power Board’s research and development organization, according to Joe Ferguson, head of special projects for the Enterprise Center, a Chattanooga-based economic development organization. Ferguson said the Electric Power Board expects delivery of the equipment “before the end of June.”
He said Bloom Energy’s earlier test site at UT-Chattanooga’s SIM Center, a computation research facility, had shown the technology to be very reliable.
Jim Horwitz
June 18, 2009 | 12:46 PMWith the exception of one-off demonstration systems from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Siemens Power, and Wartsilla-Topsoe all pre-2008, this will be an incredible break-through for SOFC technology world wide (if it works). There are only a handful of 5 kW systems in addition to 40 or so 1 kW systems in Japan, the US, and Europe presently. I just hope KR is wearing an extremely large vest if he expects to keep this installation as quiet as Bloom’s previous out-of-lab excursions.