April 15, 2009

WASHINGTON, DC ­- To expand the use of clean and renewable energy sources and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced $41.9 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for fuel cell technology.

These efforts will accelerate the commercialization and deployment of fuel cells and will create jobs in fuel cell manufacturing, installation, maintenance, and support services.  The new funding will improve the potential of fuel cells to provide power in stationary, portable and specialty vehicle applications, while cutting carbon emissions and broadening our nation’s clean energy technology portfolio.

“The investments we’re making today will help us build a robust fuel cell manufacturing industry in the United States,” said Secretary Chu.  “Developing and deploying the next generation of fuel cells will not only create jobs – it will help our businesses become more energy efficient and productive.  We are laying the foundation for a green energy economy.”

 The $41.9 million will support immediate deployment of nearly 1,000 fuel cell systems for emergency backup power and material handling applications (e.g., forklifts) that have emerged as key early markets in which fuel cells can compete with conventional power technologies.  Additional systems will be used to accelerate the demonstration of stationary fuel cells for combined heat and power in the larger residential and commercial markets.

 The increase in manufacturing volume in key early markets will also bring costs down and encourage the growth of a domestic supplier base. A variety of technologies will be developed and deployed, including polymer electrolyte, solid oxide and direct-methanol fuel cells.

 The funding includes:

• $41.9 million from President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund 13 projects to deploy fuel cells – helping to build a consumer base for U.S. fuel cell manufacturers.
• Approximately $72.4 million in cost-share funding from industry participants—for a total of nearly $114.3 million. This cost share demonstrates private sector commitment to developing and deploying these clean, energy efficient technologies.

For more information about DOE’s fuel cell activities, please visit http://www1.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/. A detailed, state by state list of awards is below:

Fuel Cell Market Transformation Projects

Arkansas

FedEx Freight East (Harrison, AR)

This project will deploy 35 fuel cell systems as battery replacements for a complete fleet of electric lift trucks at FedEx’s existing service center in Springfield, Missouri. Success at this service center will lead to further fleet conversions at some or all of FedEx’s other 470 service centers. $1.3 million

California

Jadoo Power (Folsom, CA)

Jadoo, together with Acumentrics Corporation, NASCAR Media Group, Lynch Diversified Vehicles, California’s Police and Fire Departments of the City of Folsom, and Airgas, Inc., will establish the environmental and cost benefits of using a 1-kW fuel cell power system to generate electricity, as opposed to traditional gas/diesel generators and lead acid battery power sources.  This demonstration will provide operating data from each field unit at customer sites, as well as degradation analysis and projected system lifetime. $1.8 million

PolyFuel, Inc. (Mountain View, CA)

The objective of this project is to further integrate and miniaturize the components of PolyFuel’s portable power system for use in mobile computing, and analyze failure modes to increase durability.  Polyfuel will also conduct a design for manufacturability and assembly review to ensure that the systems meet the cost targets for commercialization. $2.5 million

Colorado

Anheuser-Busch (St. Louis, MO)

Anheuser-Busch will deploy 23 fuel cell systems as battery replacements for a complete fleet of electric lift trucks at their facility in Fort Collins, Colorado, demonstrating the economic benefits of large fleet conversions of forklifts from lead-acid batteries to fuel cell power units. Success in this project will lead to further fleet conversions at some or all of Anheuser-Busch’s other 11 U.S. facilities. $1.1 million

Massachusetts

Nuvera Fuel Cells (Billerica, MA)

To accelerate market penetration of fuel cells, East Penn Manufacturing (an industrial and automotive battery manufacturer) and Nuvera will deploy 10 fuel cell forklifts in East Penn’s facility in Topton, PA.  Fuel will be supplied by Nuvera’s natural gas reformer, storage, and dispensing system. $1.1 million

Michigan

Delphi Automotive (Troy, MI)

Delphi will develop, test and demonstrate a 3- to 5-kW solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) auxiliary power unit (APU) for heavy duty commercial class 8 trucks. The demonstration will improve upon Delphi’s current generation SOFC technology by increasing net output power and fuel processing efficiency, decreasing heat loss and parasitic power loss, and establishing diesel fuel compatibility. $2.4 million

New York

MTI MicroFuel Cells (Albany, NY)

To accelerate fuel cell use in consumer markets, MTI will demonstrate a one-watt consumer electronics power pack.  The project will focus on improving reliability to meet the standards required by the electronics market and will include testing of individual components, subsystems and complete direct methanol fuel cell systems.  MTI will also develop manufacturing processes to improve product yields and reduce overall costs. $2.4 million

Plug Power, Inc. (Latham, NY)

This demonstration project will validate the durability of Plug Power’s 5-kW stationary combined heat and power fuel cell system and verify its commercial readiness. Plug Power will carry out a three-year project to test its units in residential and light commercial applications in California. $3.4 million

Plug Power Inc. (Latham, NY)

This project will demonstrate the market viability of the GenCore® rack-mounted fuel cell product that provides clean and highly reliable emergency backup power. Plug Power will install and operate new systems in real-world applications at geographically-diverse sites, providing for as much as 275 kW of backup power. $2.7 million

Pennsylvania

GENCO (Pittsburgh, PA)

This project will deploy 156 fuel cell systems as battery replacements for fleets of electric lift trucks at six of GENCO’s existing distribution centers (South Carolina, Pennsylvania - 3 locations, and Ohio - 2 locations).  Success at these distribution centers will lead to further fleet conversions at some or all of GENCO’s other 109 distribution centers. $6.1 million (six awards)

Texas

Sysco of Houston (West Houston, TX)

Sysco will deploy 90 fuel cell systems as battery replacements for a fleet of pallet trucks at Sysco’s new distribution center in Houston, Texas, due to open in August 2009. This installation will be the first ever green field installation in the world without battery infrastructure for a pallet truck fleet. Success at this distribution center will lead to further fleet conversions at some or all of Sysco’s other 169 distribution centers. $1.2 million

Virginia

Sprint Communications (Reston, VA)

Sprint Nextel will demonstrate the viability of packaged 1-kW to 10-kW fuel cell systems with 72 hours of on-site fuel storage for backup power to communication infrastructure used by state and local first responders and by public safety answering points (911 centers). Sprint will address siting and permitting issues, and will benchmark the lifecycle costs, performance, and operational characteristics against the incumbent technologies (batteries, generators, and diesel fuel). $7.3 million

Washington

ReliOn Inc. (Spokane, WA)

ReliOn will add reliability to a utility communications network where no backup power was previously available at 25 sites throughout central and northern California. They will deploy 180 fuel cells with a new refillable 72-hour fuel system to locations across the AT&T Mobility Network. This project will provide DOE with installation, fueling logistics, and operating data for fuel cells in voice and data communications networks in mountain, desert, and urban locations. $8.6 million (two awards)

 For more information about DOE’s fuel cell activities, please visit http://www1.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells

Media contact(s):
(202) 586-4940

Upton, NY — Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $1.2 billion in new science funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for major construction, laboratory infrastructure, and research efforts sponsored across the nation by the DOE Office of Science.  Secretary Chu made the announcement during a visit to the Brookhaven National Laboratory. 

“Leadership in science remains vital to America’s economic prosperity, energy security, and global competitiveness,” said Secretary Chu.  “These projects not only provide critically needed short-term economic relief but also represent a strategic investment in our nation’s future.  They will create thousands of jobs and breathe new life into many local economies, while helping to accelerate new technology development, renew our scientific and engineering workforce, and modernize our nation’s scientific infrastructure.”

The DOE Office of Science is the steward of ten National Laboratories in eight states across the nation and constructs and operates large-scale scientific facilities such as advanced light sources and nanoscale science research centers that provide the cutting-edge tools of today’s advanced energy and physical science research.  Many of the Recovery Act projects are focused on these widely used National Laboratory facilities. The package also provides substantial support for both university- and National Laboratory-based researchers, working on problems in fields ranging from particle and plasma physics to biofuels, solar energy, superconductivity, solid state lighting, electricity storage and materials science, among others. 

The Department is poised to move aggressively on these projects–many already existing, some new–to ensure maximum jobs impact and scientific payoff.  At the same time, the Department has put in place controls to ensure a high level of accountability, transparency, and responsibility in the deployment of these taxpayer dollars.

Included among the approved projects are, among others:

• $150 million to accelerate ongoing construction on the National Synchrotron Light Source-II at Brookhaven National Laboratory, in Upton, New York.  This new, state-of-the-art high intensity light source is expected to facilitate major breakthroughs in next-generation energy technologies, materials science and biotechnology. Ultimately, it could lead to advances in battery technology and photovoltaics.
• $123 million for major construction, modernization, and needed decommissioning of laboratory facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), in Oak Ridge Tennessee; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), in Berkeley, California; and Brookhaven National Laboratory.
• $65 million to accelerate construction of the 12-Billion Electron Volt Upgrade of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF) in Newport News, Virginia.  The CEBAF upgrade will provide an international community of physicists with a cutting-edge facility for studying the basic building blocks of the visible universe. The advanced particle accelerator technology being developed for this project also has had important medical applications.
• $277 million for Energy Frontier Research Centers, to be awarded on a competitive basis to universities and DOE National Laboratories across the country. These centers will accelerate the transformational basic science needed to develop plentiful and cost-effective alternative energy sources and will pursue advanced fundamental research in fields ranging from solar energy to nuclear energy systems, biofuels, geological sequestration of carbon dioxide, clean and efficient combustion, solid state lighting, superconductivity, hydrogen research, electrical energy storage, catalysis for energy, and materials under extreme conditions.
• $90 million for other core research, providing support for graduate students, postdocs, and Ph.D. scientists across the nation. This will create jobs and stimulate the economy both directly – in creating and saving research jobs – as well as through scientific advancements that ultimately can be applied in the marketplace.
• $69 million to create a national scale, prototype 100-gigabit per second data network linking research centers across the nation.  This effort will enhance the Office of Science’s networking capabilities and benefit the commercial telecommunications sector.
• $330 million for operations and equipment at Office of Science major scientific user facilities, used annually by over 20,000 researchers.  Facilities supported by Recovery Act funding include, among others, the Spallation Neutron Source at ORNL, the world’s most intense pulsed accelerator-based neutron source, used in advanced materials science, chemistry, and biology research; the Nanoscale Science Research Centers, located at five National Laboratories nationwide, which provide world-leading nanotechnology instrumentation; the ARM Climate Research Facility, a collection of climate measurement facilities located around the globe that gather atmospheric data needed to reduce uncertainty about climate change; the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), which provides unique instrumentation and computational capabilities for environmental science; and the Linac Coherent Light Source, currently under construction at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) in Menlo Park, CA, which will enable scientists for the first time to observe chemical reactions at the molecular level in real time.
• In addition, the Recovery Act funding provides $125 million for needed infrastructure improvements across nine DOE national laboratories: Ames Laboratory in Ames, Iowa; Argonne National Laboratory, in Argonne, Illinois; Brookhaven National Laboratory; Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois; LBNL; ORNL; PNNL in Richland, WA; SLAC; and TJNAF.  

The Department of Energy is the nation’s leading sponsor of basic research in the physical sciences, with 17 national laboratories, and also supports researchers at more than 300 colleges and universities nationwide. History has shown that investments in science pay for themselves many times over.

The $1.2 billion is the first installment of a total of $1.6 billion allocated to the DOE Office of Science by Congress under the Recovery Act legislation.  Officials are working on details remaining to enable approval and release of the balance of $371 million.

Attached is a more detailed breakdown of how today’s funding announcement affects a number of DOE’s National Laboratories around the country.  Also attached is a fact sheet on how investments in science can generate jobs and economic recovery.

Media contact(s):
(202) 586-4940