Power Generation - Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: Advances in Transportation and Power - page 182

When a fuel cell consumes natural gas or other hydrocarbons, it
produces some carbon dioxide, though much less than burned fuel. Ad-
vanced fuel cells using natural gas, for example, could potentially reduce
carbon dioxide emissions by 60% compared to a conventional coal plant
and by 25% compared to modern natural gas plants.
Also, the carbon dioxide is emitted in concentrated form which
makes its capture and storage, or sequestration, much easier. Fuel cells
are so clean that, in the United States, over half of the states have financial
incentives to support their installation. In fact, the South Coast Air Qual-
ity Management District in southern California and regulatory authorities
in both Massachusetts and Connecticut have exempted fuel cells from air
quality permitting requirements. Some states have portfolio standards or
set asides for fuel cells. There are major fuel cell programs in New York
(NYSERDA), Connecticut (Connecticut Clean Energy Fund), Ohio (Ohio
Development Department), and California (California Energy Commis-
sion). Certain states have favorable policies that improve the economics
of fuel cell projects. For example, some states have net metering for fuel
cells which obligates utilities to deduct any excess power produced by
fuel cells from the customer's bill.
Fuel cells are also inherently flexible. Like batteries in a flashlight,
the cells can be stacked to produce voltage levels that match specific pow-
er needs; from a few watts for certain appliances to multiple megawatt
power stations that can light a community.
SOLID STATE ENERGY CONVERSION ALLIANCE
The Department of Energy formed the Solid State Energy Conver-
sion Alliance (SECA) with a goal of producing a solid-state fuel cell mod-
ule that would cost no more than $400/kW. This would allow fuel cells
to compete with gas turbine and diesel generators. The plan is to devel-
op a compact, lightweight, 3-kW to 10-kW building block module that
can be mass-produced using many of the same manufacturing advances
that have greatly lowered costs for electronics equipment. These building
blocks would be clustered into a number of custom-built stacks for a va-
riety of applications ranging from small portable power sources to mega-
watt generating systems.
SECA is made of fuel cell developers, small businesses, universities
and national laboratories. It is administered by the Energy Department