CA Stationary Fuel Cell Collaborative (CaSFCC)
The mission of this Collaborative is to promote stationary fuel cell commercialization as a means towards:
- reducing or eliminating air pollutants
and greenhouse gas emissions,
- increasing energy efficiency,
- promoting energy reliability and
security,
- promoting energy diversity,
- promoting energy independence, and
- realizing a sustainable energy future
The Collaborative envisions fuel
cell installations pursued by state, local and
public organizations as well as private entities.
In aggregate, the Collaborative has established
a minimum goal of 50 to 250 MW of installed capacity
by the year 2006 in California. We believe that
California represents a critical market for the
fuel cell industry. Therefore, it is anticipated
that California will capture 5 to 25% of the global
sales volume capacity over the next several years.
The Collaborative will take specific actions to
promote a wide variety of fuel cell technologies,
sizes and applications for installation in California.
These actions will include facilitating the installation
of fuel cells in a variety of applications including:
industrial, commercial, residential, premium, remote,
backup and base-load power applications - as the
market dictates.
The Collaborative will provide unparalleled leadership in facilitating the installation of fuel cells in state buildings as well as support the installation of fuel cells in other markets.
Specific Actions
To support its mission, the Collaborative will engage in several activities related to facilitating the commercialization of stationary fuel cells in California. These activities will include:
- Developing recommendations for policies/programs
that support technologies and solutions
that meet the Collaborative's goals
of cost-effective, clean, reliable,
and diverse sources of energy. In developing
recommendations, it must be recognized
that there will be a transition or
bridge from natural gas to renewable
fuels over the longer term, thereby
setting the vector for fuel diversity;
- Working with industry, government, environmental organizations, and other stakeholders to identify opportunities for siting fuel cells that yield mutually beneficially results;
- Encouraging the improved performance and reduction of costs of fuel cell products including the support of hybrid technologies (e.g., wind, solar, and/or fuel cells) as a cost effective system to achieve a diverse energy supply;
- Identifying financing and incentive opportunities for stationary fuel cell installations recognizing labor opportunities and training as a part of financing opportunities;
- Implementing an inter-organizational policy to utilize fuel cells in government facilities, (e.g., sustainable buildings);
- Working with public entities to encourage the establishment of competitive bulk procurement agreements;
- Working closely with regulatory agencies to identify and address regulatory barriers (e.g., work towards a harmonized fire code regulation);
- Encouraging outreach and education to help make fuel cells an integral part of distributed generation;
- Developing and issuing state procurement instruments that encourage the placement of clean distributed generation in state buildings;
- Supporting (including funding) demonstration projects for evaluation of technical and environmental benefits;
- Collecting, evaluating and distributing data on the commercialization of fuel cells for power generation and fuel storage in California; and
- Investigating new technology initiatives that would integrate mobile and stationary fuel cells efforts.