At Morgan Stanley’s Purchase, N.Y., facility, a 250-kilowatt (kW) fuel cell will regularly supplement existing grid power and provide backup power if grid power is lost. At the Macy’s online fulfillment center in Cheshire, Conn., a solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) will provide approximately 600 kW of power to its base load and provide backup power during grid outages. At Pfizer Inc.’s 160-acre campus in Groton, Conn., the company is installing a fuel-cell power plant to generate 5.6 megawatts (MW) of power 24/7, while combining with the local grid power to enable a reliable configuration and ensure its critical research and development equipment is fully functional at all times. 


Fuel-cell supplier Bloom Energy has provided the devices to large enterprises, such as eBay, Macy’s and Morgan Stanley. eBay introduced Bloom Energy’s “bloom box” fuel cells into its base load. Eventually, eBay used the cells to satisfy much of their total demand. The company is getting rid of backup generators, which are not used frequently, but still require regular maintenance.


Fuel-cell technology is changing the paradigm of traditional backup power. Instead of a diesel generator that ran once a month, or less than 1 percent of the time, a fuel cell does what it can do and more. Plus, it takes up about the same footprint, has no emissions to worry about, serves as backup if needed, and may supplement the base load if it is of proper capacity.


SOFC system technology converts fuel into electricity through a highly efficient, electrochemical process, resulting in on-site, clean and reliable power. Fuel cells have efficiencies up to 60 percent and generally outperform combustion-engine technologies in efficiency. A typical land-based fuel cell for network power has a life cycle of about 40,000 hours, depending on its operating environment. 


These advantages seem to be driving demand for fuel-cell technology. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2014 Fuel Cell Technologies Market Report, the industry grew to $2.2 billion, up from $1.3 billion in 2013. In 2014, more than 50,000 fuel cells were shipped worldwide. 


Fuel cells supply power in many different applications, from material handling equipment to vehicles, and they provide backup power for communication towers. For example, in India, a British manufacturer is supplying more than 27,000 fuel cells as backup power for telecommunications throughout the country. In India, routine power outages are common, disabling communications systems for up to eight hours at a time.


Another common use of fuel cells, for backup power and base-load power, is in data centers. Data center demand is growing due to an ongoing “big data” revolution and a surge in cloud computing. Data centers operate 24/7 and consume tremendous amounts of power. Data center energy costs are a substantial portion of their total operational costs. For a data center, fuel cells are often installed as part of the power configuration contributing a microgrid that is used within a facility. 


“We are always on, always sharing and always aware,” said Phil Fischer, data center segment manager of Eaton Corp. “Therefore, data centers consume a lot of energy. In fact, some analysts say that data centers consume nearly 2 percent of global energy.”


According to Fischer, data centers are adopting a concept called microgrid-energy systems, creating essentially a local grid within a grid for data centers. Microgrids support distributed energy sources, such as backup generation, in-house cogeneration, combined heat and power (CHP), on-site renewables, and fuel cells and energy storage. This group of generating assets and defined loads can operate as a self-sufficient stand-alone application within the utility grid or isolated from a faulty power grid.


However, are fuel cells cost competitive with alternative backup power sources, such as emergency diesel generators and backup battery banks?


In a September 2014 report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a cost comparison shows fuel cells are more expensive by a factor of about 1.2 on average but are about five times less expensive than battery power. However, when footprint, emissions and maintenance requirements are all taken into account, fuel cells’ total cost of ownership is generally more favorable. 


An emergence of fuel-cell technology as primary base-load power, backup power, and power for other equipment (such as material handling equipment and vehicles) is still young, and its presence is well described in the Department of Energy’s “State of the State: Fuel Cells in America 2015.”


According to the report, “Nearly 10 percent of Fortune 500 companies use fuel cells to generate clean, efficient and reliable power all across the U.S. When examining the top 100 companies on the Fortune list, the number grows—with almost 25 percent using fuel cells to power data centers, cell phone towers, corporate buildings, retail facilities 
or forklifts.”