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 s part
of its Advanced Power Generation Program, Southern States Power
Company announced that it is beginning its Stationary Source
Fuel Cell Generation Program. The announcement of this new fuel
cell development program comes two weeks after SSPC announced
that it entered into a joint venture to develop a fuel cell powered
van with Global Fuel Cell Corporation.
 Fuel
cells run on hydrogen gas that can be produced from variety of
fuels including natural gas, propane, bio-diesel, methanol, and
gasoline. Natural gas is the fuel of choice and presents the
least amount of problems in conversion. Unfortunately, automobiles
cannot carry enough natural gas tanks and therefore have range
limitations.
However,
fuel cells also have very large market applications as stationary
power generation units. Power generator fuel cells are not confronted
with the same technical hurdles as automobile fuel cells. For
example, stationary fuel cells can run indefinitely on natural
gas supplied by local gas mains, which presently exist in most
U.S. cities. Secondly, the space limitations in automobiles do
not present a problem in stationary fuel cell applications.
A third
advantage of stationary applications is that fuel cells running
on natural gas can be combined with a natural gas powered cogeneration
unit. The waste heat of the natural gas generator can be utilized
for fuel cell operations in conjunction with other cogeneration
features.
In addition
to these advantages, stationary source fuel cell applications
have the additional benefits of high efficiency and no pollution.
Fuel cells can generate pollution-free power at the customer
site with no requirements for connecting to the electric power
grid or power lines, and they are independent from power company
outages (can anyone remember a natural gas outage?). Furthermore,
fuel cells produce electricity through a chemical cycle by combining
hydrogen with oxygen (from air) to form H2O (pure water). This
chemical cycle doubles the energy conversion efficiency over
a conventional burning fuel cycle. Therefore, fuel cells offer
lower electrical fuel costs which are the single largest cost
component in the production of electrical power.
The
markets for stationary fuel cell generation are very large and
include base-load applications in government, military services
and industry, emergency power backup for mission critical applications
including telecommunications, medical care and facilities management,
and alternative energy for small and large residential environments.
In response to strong interest in the benefits of stationary
fuel cell technology, SSPC is presently negotiating with BF Goodrich
Aerospace to install the first fuel-cell and natural gas cogeneration
facility running on natural gas at the BF Goodrich Aerospace
facilities in Chula Vista, Calif. 
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