CALIFORNIA OPPORTUNITIES
RECENT NEWS
The Department of Defense (DoD) funds a buy-down program for purchasing and installing fuel cells. The grant is $1,000 per kW of installed fuel cell up one third of the cost. This program has $6 million available for the 2003 round of grants that are now being accepted. The Bonneville Power Administration is administering the program this year. Next year another round of proposals will be solicited around the January time frame for $1.3 million. Application criteria are identified in the slide presentation (see Documents Page). Opportunities also exist at the DoD fuel cell testing and evaluation center. The DoD is prepared to cost-share projects for those that need such a facility. The DoD website has information on the performance and installation of fuel cells that they have funded. This site is www.dodfuelcell.com.
The principal activity is the Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA) program of the Department of energy (DOE) where the attention is very strong to develop advanced fuel cell products that will meet the goals of a low cost. That program will expand this next year in the consideration of hybrid technology with fuel cell technology. Another area came out of the “Vision 21” program and includes the development of a $1 billion, 100 MW central power plant FutureGen program that will co-generate hydrogen using a gas turbine with gasification, but the projection will be to convert that technology to high fuel to electrical conversion efficiency, which would likely be fuel cells with gas turbines. Further information can be obtained at www.seca.doe.gov.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUP) operates the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), which is generally considered to be the most successful Distributed Generation program in the United States. The program provides rebates for purchases of advance power technologies, with the limited eligibility to system sizes of 1.5 MW, but the incentives only apply to the first 1MW of system output. The level one incentive is $4.50/Watt up to 50 percent of project cost for PV, wind, renewable Fuel Cells. Level 2 provides $2.50/Watt up to 40 percent of project cost for non-renewable Fuel Cells with CHP up to 1.5 MW. The SGIP program has been extended to 2008. Further information can be obtained at www.ora.ca.gov/distgen/selfgen/sgips/index.htm.
The California Energy Commission (CEC) operates the Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program. This program funds $62.5 million per year in six different program areas. Research program areas include fuel cells, fuel cell turbine hybrids, micro turbines, small turbines, sterling engines, advanced cycles and is divided between research development and demonstration. Further information can be obtained at www.energy.ca.gov/pier/index.html.