FirstEnergy and American Electric Power are considering adopting fuel cell technology
NORTH CANTON — Ohio’s two largest utilities, FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron and Columbus-based American Electric Power, are seriously considering adopting fuel cell technologies.
Speakers from each company today addressed more than 200 people attending the Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition’s seventh annual symposium on the Stark campus of Kent State University.
The message was clear: Fuel cells will have a role to play in utility-distribution systems, meaning consumers should not be surprised to see them popping up in neighborhoods over the next decade or two.
Elizabeth Shaw, FirstEnergy’s energy supply technical adviser, said the utility hopes to use fuel cells to meet Ohio’s mandates that utilities begin generating and selling renewable energy by the end of this year. The state’s new utility regulations require just a fraction of a percent of the power sold this year to come from renewable technologies, but that will grow to 12.5 percent by 2025.
The company in December will install a one-megawatt (1 million watts) fuel cell made by Ballard Fuel Cell Systems of British Columbia. The giant version of the 150,000-watt fuel cells that Ballard has tested for years in buses will come in a tractor-trailer that FirstEnergy engineers can move around the system.
John Schneider, technology consultant for AEP, described a future scenario in which big coal and nuclear power plants are used less and utilities turn to fuel cells, solar panels and wind turbines strategically located across a utility’s local distribution system.
Schneider and Shaw were followed by representative of Ballard and Rolls Royce Energy Fuel Cell Systems.
Mark Fleiner, president of the Rolls U.S. fuel cell division, said financing difficulties have slowed the company’s efforts to roll out one-megawatt fuel cells that would run on pipeline natural gas.
Fleiner said the recession recovery over the next year will determine a commercialization schedule. In the meantime, Rolls has about 50 engineers developing and refining the technology at labs at part of the North American headquarters on the nearby Stark State College of Technology campus.
