DANBURY, Conn., March 13, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- FuelCell Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq:FCEL), a leading manufacturer of efficient, ultra-clean power plants using renewable and domestic fuels for commercial and industrial customers, today announced that its modular 300 kilowatt (kW) Direct FuelCell(r) (DFC(r)) power plant has met the California Air Resources Board's (CARB) stringent distributed generation emissions standards for 2007.
An earlier model of the DFC300MA, which was capable of producing 250 kW of power, had previously attained this certification. Through the incorporation of an advanced cell stack design, FuelCell Energy achieved a 20 percent increase in power output this past fall which required the plant to be recertified to the CARB emissions standard. By meeting this standard, the Company's newest DFC300MA power plant, which will begin shipping to customers in California in the second calendar quarter, is categorized as an 'ultra-clean' distributed generation technology, exempting it from air quality district permitting requirements (http://www.arb.ca.gov).
Fuel cells and other ultra-clean products meet these requirements, while combustion equipment generally does not. In addition, the CARB certification qualifies the Company's products for preferential rate treatment by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) including the elimination of "exit fees" and "standby charges" for customer electric generation.
"California is one of the largest power consumers in the world so it is critical for us to design products that meet its requirements," said William Karambelas, FuelCell Energy's Vice President of Business Development, Western Region. "With this certification, we once again demonstrate our corporate commitment to delivering ultra-clean, efficient power plants. We significantly increased the power output of the DFC300MA while reducing production costs and maintaining our low emissions standards -- a significant achievement by our technical and manufacturing teams."
In September 2006, California passed Assembly Bill 32 which requires rolling back greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 -- 25 percent from today's levels. DFC power plants emit almost no nitrogen oxide (NOX) and sulfur oxide (SOX) pollutants and much lower levels of carbon dioxide than competing technologies because fuel is produced from an electrochemical reaction, not burned. Higher electrical efficiency means that less fuel is needed to run the power plant and greenhouse gas emissions are lower. The electrical efficiency of a DFC300MA unit is up to 47 percent better than other power plants of its size.
The California Self Generation Program (SGIP) provides over $80 million per year of incentive funding for renewable and ultra-clean technologies on the basis of $2500/kW for DFC products operating on natural gas and $4500/kW for our DFC products operating on renewable fuels such as anaerobic gas from wastewater treatment facilities.
The FuelCell Energy's megawatt class DFC1500MA power plant was previously certified under the CARB standards in September 2004.
About FuelCell Energy, Inc.
FuelCell Energy develops and markets ultra-clean power plants that generate electricity with up to twice the efficiency of conventional fossil fuel plants with virtually no air pollution and reduced greenhouse gas emissions using a variety of fuels including renewable biogas and domestically-available fuels like natural gas. The company's fuel cell products, ranging in size from 300 kW to 2.4 megawatt (MW), are scalable for distributed generation applications 10 MW and larger while producing baseload electricity giving commercial, industrial and utility customers improved power generation economics and reliability with lower emissions. Headquartered in Danbury, Conn., FuelCell Energy has over 60 power plant installations worldwide that have generated more than 150 million kilowatt hours. For more information on the company please go to www.fuelcellenergy.com.
This news release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the Company's plans and expectations regarding the development and commercialization of its fuel cell technology. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Factors that could cause such a difference include, without limitation, the risk that commercial field trials of the Company's products will not occur when anticipated, general risks associated with product development, manufacturing, changes in the utility regulatory environment, potential volatility of energy prices, rapid technological change, and competition, as well as other risks set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change in the Company's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.