Chattanooga Pulse

EPB’s Chattanooga headquarters will be a test site for a new type of fuel cell electric generator designed by Bloom Energy.

Chattanooga was chosen because all the stars aligned. This alignment was the result of the friendship of Bloom Energy’s founder, a former colleague of his (now at the University of Tennessee) and two Tennessee legislators with ties to the Scenic City.

K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy, announced his company would install the latest version of their fuel cell generator in Chattanooga this year. The 100-kilowatt system will be capable of generating electricity using a variety of fuels, from natural gas to biomass, creating little or no emissions.

Sridhar says the breakthrough technology could “democratize” the electric grid. These smaller, more efficient generators could produce enough energy for the installation location, with excess sold back to the power company. Installations could be as small as a home generator, or large businesses could generate their own electricity and profit from selling off the excess.

Congressman Zach Wamp announced at the Tennessee Valley Corridor Summit that the project would be getting an infusion of federal funds. Wamp has been friends with Sridhar since the early days of the Summit, which began meeting more than 10 years ago.

Joe Ferguson, head of Special Projects for Chattanooga’s Enterprise Center, says that Wamp and Senator Bob Corker were instrumental in bringing this technology to the Tennessee Valley. “[They] were the ones that smelled it out,” he said. He also gives credit to Henry McDonald, who holds a chair of excellence at the University of Tennessee–Chattanooga’s National Center for Computational Engineering, better known as the SimCenter. McDonald was also a scientist with NASA, and a former colleague of Sridhar’s.

Two years ago a 5-kilowatt system was installed by Bloom Energy at the SimCenter, and it’s through the SimCenter federal funding will flow. The SimCenter will conduct the necessary analysis of the system once it’s installed.  EPB will contribute up to $100,000 to cover installation costs and operational costs. The test unit is scheduled for operation for one year, but might stay five years, depending on results.

Not only is Chattanooga the site for the test, but local officials hope that a manufacturing plant can be located here once the system is tested and proven marketable. There are still technological hurdles to overcome before making such extended plans, but Bloom appears to be on the path.

In the past, reliability has been an issue with fuel cell technology. In order to be used in a commercial installation, the generation of power must be dependable. The other concern is cost of raw fuels. Currently, the price of natural gas is still volatile. Whatever fuel is used, the supply must be abundant and affordable.

The EPB installation will run on natural gas, but should serve as a stable test platform.

The Tennessee Valley Authority also appears interested in the project. Although the technology could be seen as competition to the largest power generator in the country, TVA is interested in seeing it in action and analyzing the data collected from the tests.

TVA has recently announced plans to utilize a new, smaller nuclear plant designed by Virginia-based Babcock and Wilcox. The utility is considering the 12-megawatt units for use in the still-unfinished Bellfonte plant in North Alabama and at the abandoned Clinch River site in Oak Ridge.

If successful, the next installation of the fuel cell technology could be the one that’s marketed to the public—maybe even before the end of this year.