Dow and GM to Build One-Megawatt Fuel Cell Installation

December 1, 2004

Dow Chemical Company and the General Motors Corporation launched the second phase of their joint fuel cell demonstration project on November 29th. The companies will now build a one-megawatt fuel cell pilot plant and integrate it into Dow's Texas Operations facility in Freeport, Texas. The system will be fueled with hydrogen that is produced as a byproduct at the chemical plant, and will feed power into the plant's power distribution grid. According to GM, the new facility will provide valuable experience in "learning to work with real-world hydrogen that has some impurities in it, and not the pure hydrogen you get in a lab setting." See the Dow press release and Web site.

Photo of a large metal box containing the fuel cell system, with an electrical substation in the background.

The new 250-kilowatt fuel cell system in Westerville, Ohio.
Credit: FuelCell Energy, Inc.

Another one-megawatt fuel cell installation is in the works for California: FuelCell Energy, Inc. announced in late October that it will team with Chevron Energy Solutions to provide a fuel cell system to the Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County. That jail already features a 1.18-megawatt solar power system. See the FuelCell Energy press release.

FuelCell Energy also worked with Caterpillar Inc. to install a 250-kilowatt fuel cell system at an electrical substation in Westerville, Ohio. The companies brought the fuel-cell power plant online in mid-November, fueling it with hydrogen produced from natural gas. Ohio Governor Bob Taft hailed the achievement and used the occasion to announce nearly $3.5 million in grants to five Ohio companies involved in fuel cell development. See the press releases from FuelCell Energy and the Ohio Department of Development.