- Email: [email protected]
FCE unit using biogas to power Microsoft's Wyoming data centre
NEWS used to contribute to peak-shifting and peakcutting for power used in the Kawasaki Marien public facility and Higashi-Ogishima-Naka Park, through optimised control of the PV installations and storage battery. The system will utilise Toshiba’s superior long-life SCiB™ lithium battery as the storage battery, as well as Toshiba’s durable Ene-farm hydrogen fuel cells to achieve long-term stable operation [FCB, September 2014, p5]. Kawasaki City will supply the demonstration test environment, with Toshiba responsible for the design, manufacture, and maintenance of the equipment. The results obtained will be jointly utilised by Kawasaki City and Toshiba. Toshiba, Smart Grid and Ene-Farm: http://tinyurl.com/toshiba-enefarm
LARGE STATIONARY
FCE unit using biogas to power Microsoft’s Wyoming data centre
C
onnecticut-based FuelCell Energy recently participated in the dedication of the fuel cell power plant installation at the Dry Creek Water Reclamation Facility in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The molten carbonate Direct FuelCell® utilises renewable biogas to power a nearby Microsoft data centre, and supply heat to the Facility’s wastewater treatment process. The fuel cell power plant began operating on clean natural gas in early 2014, and is now operating on renewable biogas [see the wasteto-energy features in FCB, June and July 2014]. This project is being evaluated as a template for future potential MW-class data centre applications utilising renewable biogas [FCB, December 2012, p5]. The renewable biogas is a byproduct of wastewater treatment, whereby anaerobic bacteria produce biogas while stabilising solids removed from wastewater. The power plant produces 300 kW; the data centre uses about 200 kW, with the remainder supplied to the wastewater treatment plant to reduce its electric bills. ‘By bringing together the power plant with the data centre, we are actually simplifying the power distribution infrastructure and improving efficiency in the distribution of power,’ says Christian Belady, general manager of data centre services for Microsoft.
December 2014
FuelCell Energy, Danbury, Connecticut, USA. Tel: +1 203 825 6000, www.fuelcellenergy.com
supplies 250 kW of constant baseload power to the facility, as well as gridindependent electricity to power parts of the building’s critical load during grid outages. The SOFC system is now supplying clean and uninterruptible power for the building, which also utilises a solar panel field completed earlier this year to improve the facility’s energy efficiency and resilience. During peak energy consumption, together they can supply approximately 1 MW, representing up to 30% of the building’s demand. Support for this project was provided by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). ‘We are excited to bring another Bloom Energy project online in New York,’ says Bill Kurtz, chief financial and commercial officer at Bloom Energy. ‘By installing Bloom Energy’s business continuity solution, Morgan Stanley can protect its critical business operations from grid events and mitigate the risk of escalating energy prices.’ Bloom Energy Servers produce more than 130 MW for major companies and organisations in the US. Last year, Californiabased Bloom opened a manufacturing centre in Delaware [FCB, November 2013, p6], and completed a number of projects, including a 6 MW deployment at an eBay data centre in Utah [FCB, October 2013, p3]. This summer it deployed a 1.6 MW installation at the National Security Agency (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Maryland [FCB, June 2014, p6], and it recently announced a 750 kW power plant for Danbury Fair Mall in Connecticut [FCB, November 2014, p7]. Bloom also has a joint venture with SoftBank in Japan [FCB, August 2013, p4], with systems installed in Fukuoka City [FCB, December 2013, p6] and Tokyo [FCB, July 2014, p6].
Microsoft Data Centers: www.microsoft.com/datacenters
Bloom Energy Corporation, Sunnyvale, California, USA. Tel: +1 408 543 1500, www.bloomenergy.com
Siemens, Power Monitoring: www.usa.siemens.com/cheyennedatacenter
Bloom Energy Manufacturing Center Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA. Tel: +1 302 533 3650.
National Fuel Cell Research Center: www.nfcrc.uci.edu
Morgan Stanley: www.morganstanley.com
The project partners include Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities, Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power Company, Western Research Institute, the University of Wyoming, Wyoming Business Council, Siemens, and Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development organisation for Cheyenne and Laramie County. Siemens Energy Management installed intelligent controls, power monitoring hardware, and energy management software that measures overall fuel cell performance and energy output to ensure consistent, highquality power for operating the data centre 24/7. Siemens also provided environmental controls inside the data centre to manage air temperature, flow and humidity, as well as circuit breakers that deliver energy to the servers and protect power supply in the event of low or high energy levels within the container. In other news, Microsoft is also working with the National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California, Irvine to improve data centre reliability and energy efficiency. Earlier this year the research team demonstrated a rack of data centre servers powered directly on the DC output of a 10 kW PEM fuel cell stack [FCB, March 2014, p11]. NFCRC and Microsoft are now initiating the design and testing of a solid oxide fuel cell system as a distributed generation primary power source with higher reliability and efficiency, for both steady-state and dynamic operation of the servers. The advantages of SOFCs include fuel flexibility, non-precious metal catalyst, completely solid-state cell components, and the production of high-quality ‘waste’ heat for cogeneration applications inside the data centre.
Bloom Energy installs SOFC power plant for Morgan Stanley office
M
organ Stanley has unveiled a solid oxide fuel cell system manufactured by Bloom Energy, installed at the financial services giant’s headquarters in Purchase, New York. The Bloom Energy SOFC system
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority: www.nyserda.ny.gov
More FCE modules for POSCO, Korea production in mid-2015
U
S-based FuelCell Energy has sold six further molten carbonate fuel cell modules to its South Korean partner POSCO Energy. In addition,
Fuel Cells Bulletin
7
LARGE STATIONARY
FCE unit using biogas to power Microsoft’s Wyoming data centre
C
onnecticut-based FuelCell Energy recently participated in the dedication of the fuel cell power plant installation at the Dry Creek Water Reclamation Facility in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The molten carbonate Direct FuelCell® utilises renewable biogas to power a nearby Microsoft data centre, and supply heat to the Facility’s wastewater treatment process. The fuel cell power plant began operating on clean natural gas in early 2014, and is now operating on renewable biogas [see the wasteto-energy features in FCB, June and July 2014]. This project is being evaluated as a template for future potential MW-class data centre applications utilising renewable biogas [FCB, December 2012, p5]. The renewable biogas is a byproduct of wastewater treatment, whereby anaerobic bacteria produce biogas while stabilising solids removed from wastewater. The power plant produces 300 kW; the data centre uses about 200 kW, with the remainder supplied to the wastewater treatment plant to reduce its electric bills. ‘By bringing together the power plant with the data centre, we are actually simplifying the power distribution infrastructure and improving efficiency in the distribution of power,’ says Christian Belady, general manager of data centre services for Microsoft.
December 2014
FuelCell Energy, Danbury, Connecticut, USA. Tel: +1 203 825 6000, www.fuelcellenergy.com
supplies 250 kW of constant baseload power to the facility, as well as gridindependent electricity to power parts of the building’s critical load during grid outages. The SOFC system is now supplying clean and uninterruptible power for the building, which also utilises a solar panel field completed earlier this year to improve the facility’s energy efficiency and resilience. During peak energy consumption, together they can supply approximately 1 MW, representing up to 30% of the building’s demand. Support for this project was provided by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). ‘We are excited to bring another Bloom Energy project online in New York,’ says Bill Kurtz, chief financial and commercial officer at Bloom Energy. ‘By installing Bloom Energy’s business continuity solution, Morgan Stanley can protect its critical business operations from grid events and mitigate the risk of escalating energy prices.’ Bloom Energy Servers produce more than 130 MW for major companies and organisations in the US. Last year, Californiabased Bloom opened a manufacturing centre in Delaware [FCB, November 2013, p6], and completed a number of projects, including a 6 MW deployment at an eBay data centre in Utah [FCB, October 2013, p3]. This summer it deployed a 1.6 MW installation at the National Security Agency (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Maryland [FCB, June 2014, p6], and it recently announced a 750 kW power plant for Danbury Fair Mall in Connecticut [FCB, November 2014, p7]. Bloom also has a joint venture with SoftBank in Japan [FCB, August 2013, p4], with systems installed in Fukuoka City [FCB, December 2013, p6] and Tokyo [FCB, July 2014, p6].
Microsoft Data Centers: www.microsoft.com/datacenters
Bloom Energy Corporation, Sunnyvale, California, USA. Tel: +1 408 543 1500, www.bloomenergy.com
Siemens, Power Monitoring: www.usa.siemens.com/cheyennedatacenter
Bloom Energy Manufacturing Center Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA. Tel: +1 302 533 3650.
National Fuel Cell Research Center: www.nfcrc.uci.edu
Morgan Stanley: www.morganstanley.com
The project partners include Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities, Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power Company, Western Research Institute, the University of Wyoming, Wyoming Business Council, Siemens, and Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development organisation for Cheyenne and Laramie County. Siemens Energy Management installed intelligent controls, power monitoring hardware, and energy management software that measures overall fuel cell performance and energy output to ensure consistent, highquality power for operating the data centre 24/7. Siemens also provided environmental controls inside the data centre to manage air temperature, flow and humidity, as well as circuit breakers that deliver energy to the servers and protect power supply in the event of low or high energy levels within the container. In other news, Microsoft is also working with the National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California, Irvine to improve data centre reliability and energy efficiency. Earlier this year the research team demonstrated a rack of data centre servers powered directly on the DC output of a 10 kW PEM fuel cell stack [FCB, March 2014, p11]. NFCRC and Microsoft are now initiating the design and testing of a solid oxide fuel cell system as a distributed generation primary power source with higher reliability and efficiency, for both steady-state and dynamic operation of the servers. The advantages of SOFCs include fuel flexibility, non-precious metal catalyst, completely solid-state cell components, and the production of high-quality ‘waste’ heat for cogeneration applications inside the data centre.
Bloom Energy installs SOFC power plant for Morgan Stanley office
M
organ Stanley has unveiled a solid oxide fuel cell system manufactured by Bloom Energy, installed at the financial services giant’s headquarters in Purchase, New York. The Bloom Energy SOFC system
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority: www.nyserda.ny.gov
More FCE modules for POSCO, Korea production in mid-2015
U
S-based FuelCell Energy has sold six further molten carbonate fuel cell modules to its South Korean partner POSCO Energy. In addition,
Fuel Cells Bulletin
7