Campus Fuel Cells
SAN FRANCISCO — California state universities may soon run partially off of fuel cell technology thanks to projects authorized by the 
California Public Utilities Commission.
The CPUC gave the go-ahead for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Edison to install and operate utility-owned fuel cells on University of California and California State University campuses.
Fuel cell manufacturers FuelCell Energy of Danbury, Conn., and Bloom Energy of Sunnyvale, Calif., are now working with the colleges to finalize the contracts.
PG&E’s fuel cell project will consist of installing and operating three fuel cell generating facilities with a total capacity of 3 megawatts at CSU East Bay and San Francisco State University. Two of the facilities will be located at SFSU, including a 1.4 MW molten carbonate fuel cell and a 200-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell. CSU East Bay will house a 1.4 MW molten carbonate fuel cell. The molten carbonate fuel cells will be designed to utilize the byproducts of the energy conversion process, including waste heat and water to meet other campus needs, such as thermal demands for heating the Olympic-sized swimming pool at CSU East Bay.
The estimated costs for the PG&E project is $20.3 million, plus non-fuel operations and maintenance costs of approximately $9 million.
Edison’s fuel cell project will include adding three fuel cell units with a combined capacity of up to 3 MW on three separate California state university campuses — two systems of 1 to 1.4 MW each at CSU San Bernardino and CSU Long Beach and one 200 kW solid oxide fuel cell at UC Santa Barbara. The two larger systems will demonstrate combined heat and power applications, and the smaller kW system at UC Santa Barbara will demonstrate an electricity-only high efficiency fuel cell where the waste heat is used in the generation process. The fuel cells will interconnect and operate in parallel with Edison’s distribution system.
The estimated cost of the project is $19.1 million, plus non-fuel operations and maintenance costs of approximately $9 million.
The plants have an estimated useful lifespan of 10 years.
Both projects will be integrated into the curriculums of the host campuses, providing educational benefits. Contract approval pending, FuelCell Energy will manufacture the 1 to 1.4 MW cells installed at San Francisco State, CSU East Bay, CSU San Bernardino and CSU Long Beach. Bloom Energy will manufacture the two 200-kW fuel cells.