• Installation of a 1.4 megawatt combined heat and power fuel cell plant at Riverside, California Wastewater Quality Control Plant under a 20 year Power Purchase Agreement
  • Converting waste biogas into renewable power in an efficient manner that is carbon neutral and virtually absent of criteria pollutants that cause smog and acid rain


FuelCell Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq:FCEL), a global leader in the design, manufacture, operation and service of ultra‐clean, efficient and reliable fuel cell power plants, announced the execution of a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the City of Riverside, California to install a 1.4 megawatt combined heat and power (CHP) Direct FuelCell® (DFC®) power plant at the Riverside Regional Water Quality Control Plant. The fuel cell power plant will convert biogas from the wastewater treatment process into a continuous supply of ultra-clean electricity to power the facility and two electric vehicle charging stations, as well as provide thermal energy for the water treatment process. The City of Riverside is forecasting cost savings under the PPA, paying only for power produced and advancing their sustainability initiatives. FuelCell Energy will install, operate and maintain the plant under a long-term service agreement for a term of 20 years. The plant is expected to be operational in 2016.  

"We are doing the right thing to ensure cleaner air for our residents to breathe as we power critical facilities within a framework that saves the city money," said Mayor Rusty Bailey of the City of Riverside, California. "The opportunity to further clean our air without significant investments in equipment, while also obtaining cost savings, is a win-win."  

"It is great to provide the City of Riverside with a power generation solution that will deliver energy savings and energy security in an environmentally-friendly way with no capital investment required by the City," said Chip Bottone, Chief Executive Officer, FuelCell Energy, Inc. "Our fuel cell power plants are fuel flexible, utilizing on-site biogas for this application, which is carbon-neutral due to the renewable nature of the fuel source."

"The benefits of this fuel cell project are that we avoid the flaring of the biogas, we remove future compliance obligations from the South Coast Air Quality Management District regulations due to the emission of only water vapor from the fuel cells, and we obtain carbon credits from the California Air Resources Board," said Ernest Marquez, Jr., Principal Engineer, City of Riverside. "Fuel cells operating on renewable biogas solve a number of our issues and concerns about permitting and sustainability that are not easily or completely addressed by other forms of on-site power generation." 

The City will reduce its power costs and avoids the need to directly invest in the power generation equipment by utilizing the PPA structure and retaining FuelCell Energy to operate and maintain the power plant. The City found that retrofitting existing internal combustion biogas engines for compliance with clean air permitting regulations, specifically South Coast Air Quality Management District Rule 1110.2, was a more expensive option. This illustrates a key advantage of DFC plants as they eliminate clean air permitting challenges. The fuel cells utilize chemistry rather than combustion to generate power, resulting in the virtual absence of criteria pollutants including nitrogen oxide (NOx) that causes smog, sulfur dioxide (SOx) that contributes to acid rain, and particulate matter that can aggravate asthma. 

The Riverside wastewater treatment facility processes approximately 40 million gallons of wastewater per day with around-the-clock operations. The continuous power profile of the fuel cells will support the treatment process, utilizing approximately one half of the biogas generated to provide about half of the power needs for the facility.

Direct FuelCell® (DFC®) power plants solve energy, environmental and business-related power generation challenges by providing ultra clean, efficient and reliable distributed power generation.  The fuel cells combine a fuel such as renewable biogas, directed biogas or clean natural gas with oxygen from the ambient air to efficiently produce ultra-clean electricity and usable high quality heat via an electrochemical process. Virtually no pollutants are emitted due to the absence of combustion, benefiting public health. The high efficiency of the fuel cell power generation process supports the affordability of the DFC solution, and producing both electricity and heat from the same unit of fuel further supports favorable economics while also promoting sustainability. 

About FuelCell Energy

Direct FuelCell® power plants are generating ultra-clean, efficient and reliable power at more than 50 locations worldwide.  With more than 300 megawatts of power generation capacity installed or in backlog, FuelCell Energy is a global leader in providing ultra-clean baseload distributed generation to utilities, industrial operations, universities, municipal water treatment facilities, government installations and other customers around the world.  The Company's power plants have generated more than 3 billion kilowatt hours of ultra-clean power using a variety of fuels including renewable biogas from wastewater treatment and food processing, as well as clean natural gas.  For additional information, please visit www.fuelcellenergy.com, follow us on Twitter and view our videos on YouTube.

Direct FuelCell, DFC, DFC/T, DFC-H2 and FuelCell Energy, Inc. are all registered trademarks of FuelCell Energy, Inc. DFC-ERG is a registered trademark jointly owned by Enbridge, Inc. and FuelCell Energy, Inc.

CONTACT: FuelCell Energy, Inc.
         Kurt Goddard, Vice President Investor Relations
         203-830-7494
         ir@fce.com
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