News

Department of Energy Awards FuelCell Energy $40.0 Million

July 12, 2000 by Jeff Shepard

The US Department of Energy has awarded FuelCell Energy Inc. (FCE, Danbury, CT) a $40.0 million increase and three-year extension of the company's agreement under the DOE office of fossil energy's carbonate fuel cell cooperative program. The DOE cooperative program was initiated in 1994 to develop and commercialize carbonate fuel cells that could produce power for distributed generation markets at competitive prices.Funding under the program to date, approximately $144.0 million including FCE's cost share, has helped enable the company to develop its 300kW, 1.5MW and 3MW-class fuel cell power plant products that are planned for delivery to commercial customers in the second half of 2001 and in 2002.

The contract extension will provide funding to be used to further improve the performance of the company's Direct FuelCell (DFC) power plants. Work under this agreement will focus on cost reduction, extended life testing and updating the company's DFC power plant design based on field trail demonstration projects. The company's DFC is designed to provide clean, reliable, local and cost-effective power to the distributed generation power market including hospitals, schools, data centers and other commercial and industrial applications."We are now operating commercial field trials that are a direct outcome of our work with DOE," said Jerry D. Leitman, president and CEO of FCE. "This extension will provide funding that will help FCE deliver fuel cell solutions to customers in the US and throughout the world."