US DOE provides $15-mil to coal-based, fuel-cell projects

Washington (Platts)--11Aug2005

The US Dept of Energy Thursday announced the first two financial awards under
a program that supports research leading to the development of large
coal-fired power plants that use fuel cells rather than combustion units.

Teams led by General Electric Hybrid Power Generation Systems and Siemens
Westinghouse Power Corp will each receive $7.5-mil for their work on
solid-oxide fuel cell technology, DOE said. DOE said it expects the Fuel Cell
Coal-Based Systems Program to provide building blocks for a proposed project
called FutureGen that would be the world's first zero-emission, fossil fuel
power plant. 

Fuel-cell systems produce none of the emissions associated with conventional
power systems. The two teams will research, develop and demonstrate
technologies that can support power generation systems with capacities
exceeding 100 MW, DOE said. Other key requirements include overall efficiency
of at least 50% and costs of no more than $400/kWh.

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