Release Date: August 13, 2003

The two-megawatt Direct FuelCell® is due to be installed at the Wabash River clean coal technology plant this fall.

TERRE HAUTE, IN - The U.S. Department of Energy and the nation's electric power industry took a major step today toward the goal of linking a super-efficient fuel cell to a clean coal technology power plant.

In West Terre Haute, Indiana, about 100 government and industry officials gathered today in a ceremony signifying the final stages of construction and equipment installation for the world's first clean coal-fuel cell demonstration power plant.

FuelCell Energy, Inc., Danbury, Conn., intends to install their two-megawatt fuel cell system at the Wabash River Energy, Ltd., coal gasification-combined cycle power plant. Developed under the Department of Energy's Fossil Energy program, the molten carbonate fuel cell system will demonstrate an advanced, highly efficient, pollution-free electricity production system when startup testing begins at the end of the year.

The project is expected to produce enough electricity to power about 2,000 homes.

"The fuel cell is an innovative technology that generates electricity from coal without combustion," said Steve Eschbach, director of Investor Relations and Communications at FuelCell Energy, "and it does so with significantly lower emissions than the traditional combustion-based power plant."

The project uses the Direct FuelCell® technology developed by FuelCell Energy through a research partnership that began more than 25 years ago with the Department's National Energy Technology Laboratory. FuelCell Energy's Direct FuelCell® uses an electrochemical reaction between fuel and oxygen from the air to produce electric power. Since no fuel is burned, there are none of the pollutants commonly associated with the combustion of fossil fuels. In fact, many States have classified fuel cells as the environmental equivalent of wind and solar energy.

PSI Energy's Wabash River integrated gasification combined-cycle plant - a very clean system that converts coal into a synthetic gas - will supply the feed gas for the fuel cell. The Wabash River plant was supported through DOE's Clean Coal Technology Demonstration Program.

Most fuel cells entering commercial markets today are designed to use natural gas or methane gas produced from municipal waste treatment plants. The fuel cell planned for the Wabash River plant will be the largest ever to be fueled by gas made from coal.

"One truly remarkable aspect of this technology is its ability to produce hydrogen from coal," said Carl Michael Smith, DOE Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy. Because the fuel cell operates at high temperatures that allow fuel reformation to occur, the system can internally generate hydrogen from fossil fuels, as well as from renewable sources such as waste-water treatment digester gas.

"We expect the results gleaned from this demonstration will be translated into the President's FutureGen power plant initiative," said Smith. The FutureGen plant will serve as the test bed for demonstrating the best coal-based technologies the world has to offer. The plant will be based on coal gasification to produce hydrogen for use in turbines, fuel cells or hybrid combinations of these technologies. The FutureGen plant will also incorporate sequestration of carbon dioxide produced from the plant - a feature not demonstrated in the FuelCell Energy/Wabash demonstration.

The mechanical balance-of-plant equipment for the FuelCell Energy fuel cell - including all pre- and post-fuel cell processes, such as fuel processing, water-treatment systems and thermal management - has been assembled. The electrical balance-of-plant equipment - which converts direct current into alternating current for households use - will be installed by the end of August. When the fuel cell, composed of two separate modules 13 feet tall and 14 feet wide, is delivered in the fall it will be easily integrated into the unit.

FuelCell Energy's Direct FuelCell® has generated 12 million kilowatt hours of electricity worldwide during the last four years, but those units are about 250 kilowatts each in size. The two-megawatt DOE clean coal project will be the largest fuel cell ever to run on a coal-derived synthesis gas, and FuelCell Energy's largest Direct FuelCell® power plant in service.

The Department of Energy is funding half of the project's $32.3 million cost.