Release Date: September 15, 2000

The Department of Energy's Fossil Energy program is previewing the guidelines for an upcoming competition that will kick off a 10-year, $350 million program to dramatically lower the cost of fuel cells by applying advances in solid state technology.

The department posted a draft solicitation on its National Energy Technology Laboratory web site today, asking prospective applicants to comment on the document by October 11, 2000. The final solicitation is scheduled to be issued by the end of October with the first set of proposals likely to be due by December 15.

The solicitation is part of the Energy Department's new fuel cell initiative called the Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance, or SECA. The goal of the new effort is to accelerate the development of the industrial base needed to produce low-cost, solid-state fuel cells.

Fuel cells are widely regarding as the cleanest and most efficient of technologies for converting fossil fuels into electricity, but their high capital costs - $1,000 to as more than $3,500 per kilowatt - have posed a formidable hurdle to widespread commercial application.

SECA is attempting to break the capital cost barrier, ultimately producing fuel cells with a factory cost of less than $400 per kilowatt for stationary power generation and even lower for transportation applications. The key will be the mass production of ceramic-based fuel cells with techniques adapted from recent, revolutionary advances in solid state electronics, materials and fuel cell designs.

The upcoming solicitation will focus on the basic building block of the new concept - a 5-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell module capable of being mass produced and used for residential or auxiliary power unit applications. The modules could also be combined like batteries to generate larger quantities of power. Industrial teams, comprising both developers and commercial users of the systems, are being encouraged to participate in the SECA competition.

At $400 per kilowatt, fuel cells will almost certainly find commercial applications well beyond their current niche markets. Their clean, high efficiency performance could make them ideal candidates for commercial vehicles, military applications and future power plants, perhaps as early as 2010. Ultimately, the Energy Department hopes to incorporate the low-cost fuel cells into its new Vision 21 concept for a high-efficiency, non-polluting energy plant of the future.

Two national laboratories - the National Energy Technology Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory - form the core of the new initiative that will ultimately include commercial developers, universities and other research organizations.

The Energy Department plans to keep the initial SECA competition underway through 2002 with applications due each December 15. Industrial teams will be required to share 20 to 50 percent of the costs of the development efforts.