Fuel Cells, Solar, Wind — Head-to-Head Clean Tech Comparison

December 9th, 2011 by Andrew

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Fuel cells offer a highly efficient, reliable and increasingly durable means of generating clean electrical energy independent of the grid or integrated with grid power. Installations are growing across a wide range of applications, from combined heat and power (CHP) generation at commercial, industrial, government and educational facilities to hybrid electric vehicles and consumer electronics.

They’re also being evaluated as a means of storing intermittent electricity production from wind power farms and wastewater-to-energy treatment plants, as well as capturing CO2 and NOX emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Fuel cells’ “green” credentials continue to be questioned, however, especially when the fuel used to produce the hydrogen used by alkaline fuel cells is methane in the form of natural or biogas. According to the infographic above, which was provided by fuel cell systems designer and manufacturer UTC Power, these criticisms are misplaced.

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Tags: clean energy comparison, co2 emissions, comparative CO2 emissions, comparing CO2 emissions, Fuel Cells, UTC Power

About the Author

Andrew I've been reporting and writing on a wide range of topics at the nexus of economics, technology, ecology/environment and society for some five years now. Whether in Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Americas, Africa or the Middle East, issues related to these broad topical areas pose tremendous opportunities, as well as challenges, and define the quality of our lives, as well as our relationship to the natural environment.

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Anonymous

The lack of detail in this article makes it look like a favor to the vendor. I want the CleanTechnica ed.s to give me the skinny. What are the inputs and the outputs of the fuel cell? Are those substances of such type that they could be generated and consumed in inexpensive conjunction with intermittent power, thereby making the system more like a battery? How so? If the system is like a battery, how does it compare to the capabilities of current batteries and to the lifetime maintenance and recycling costs? How the heck do you compare something that gets power by oxidizing hydrogen from [???] to things that get power from wind or sunlight? If greenwashing were strawberries, we’d all be drinking smoothies right now.

Regrettably Common Fuel Cell Plan:
1. Make fuel cells
2. Get hydrogen from ???
3. Save planet!
- Anonymous
  
  Editor here: no money coming in for this (as far as i know). I’d like to see the actual numbers behind these statements, too. I see the sources, but I’m still quite confused by a handful of the statements.
  
  Andrew.. can you get us these links? Or, it seems the company that created this might have popped on the comments — can you provide more on the assumptions here?
  
  Agree that solar’s lifetime should be AT LEAST 30 years (we just had an article on that yesterday). And payback time seems absurdly high here. Also, curious about the assumptions for annual CO2 reduction.
  - Anonymous
    
    by the way, here’s the post/repost i’m mentioning: http://cleantechnica.com/2011/12/08/solar-power-less-expensive-than-analysts-purport/
    
    i’m certainly no expert on fuel cells, but the solar info does look off and i’d really like to see what the assumptions were and where the info came from.
Anonymous

Are maintenance costs included in the comparison? How often over those 20 years do those fuel cells need to be replaced? What is the energy cost (or CO2 burden) to produce the fuel cells? Once a solar system is installed, the only maintenance is occasionally cleaning them. Wind turbines need occasional maintenance as well, but outright replacement of components is generally not neccesary.
I’m not surprised the graph is so skewed, coming from a fuel cell producer.
And where are the links to information sources for the numbers they provide?
Shotputsteve

Why would the graph be using the Northeast US as a reference for solar power? Pretty bad site selection if you ask me….
Matt_Grason

In addition to the numbers looking skewed (the lifetime of solar and wind is low-balled), to compare fuel cells to solar and wind is to compare apples to oranges. Fuel cells only store energy, solar and wind systems produce energy. A fuel cell system can be used to compliment an energy source, to even out intermittency. Perhaps one of the “critical areas” a revised infographic could examine would be: if you install each of these systems and press “go”, what happens? Without an energy source (green or otherwise) the fuel cell becomes a paperweight.
- Akbweb2
  
  A most relevant point! Thx for contributing…I believe the infographic was done not to compare them head to head, which as you mention is sort of pointless, but to address the issue of fuel cells and CO2/greenhouse gas emissions…
- H2 Facts
  
  Sorry Matt but fuel cells produce energy as long as you have a supply of hydrogen (for PEM systems) or natural gas or bio gas for high temperature fuel cells. So, the point to be made is these systems can be compared as long as you have a constant supply of fuel to the fuel cell. The real key is to use hydrogen as a storage medium for the intermittency of renewables and either put it back on the grid through a fuel cell when there is demand or to put the hydrogen into other energy vectors; like for transportation in fuel cell vehicles.
  - Anonymous
    
    So, since you seem to like fuel cells, can you do or point to the analysis comparing feasible water cracking methods that are efficient enough whereby the entire system, intermittent green power source + cracking + fuel cells represent a competitive stabilized grid power system? I am hungry for news.
Akbweb2

Producing power, using energy is where emissions are created, certainly…

In the inforgraphic, CO2 emissions are based on normalized power output of 400 kW…

A watt being a joule/second, so 400,000 joules per second x number of seconds in a year – which is the period of time specified – gives you the results displayed as I read it, which are as compared to “typical central generation.”
http://www.facebook.com/people/Thomas-Cheney/716830405 Thomas Cheney

Frankly, If a student sent met the UTC energy poster as an energy project, I would give it a C-. This is ahorrible and shorty analysis as it compares emissions on a basis of KWs of capacity rather than a KWH of energy. Generally it is the latter that is the source of emissions. Just had to vent.
Anonymous

I can’t make out much of the graphic above but I can make out things that just aren’t true.

Solar panels clearly have a life much longer than 25 years. We’ve got panels that have been going for over 30 years with little drop in output.

The energy payback (if that’s what they mean by payback) is less than two years. Less than one year for some silicon panels and most/all thin film panels.

The life of wind turbines is clearly more than 20 years. We are just now taking down the first generation turbines at Altamont Pass after 30 years of electricity production. Newer design turbines should have a 40 year or long lifespan.

And what’s the fuel source for these fuel cells? Hydrogen from methane? If so, high carbon foot print? Hydrogen from water cracked by using wind/solar energy? If so, inefficient use of energy.

I’m calling BS on this one unless issues are explained.
- Akbweb2
  
  Agree, the numbers for solar seem exceptionally high…
  
  When you say energy payback, do you mean only the avoided cost of producing your own power from solar as opposed to buying it from the grid? That would exclude equipment purchase, installation and maintenance costs, yes?
  
  There are commercial sources of hydrogen that’s produced as by-product of large-scale chemical, chlorine production…
  
  As a means of storing energy by electrolysis of water, would have to compare its footprint against alternative means of storage, which may well vary from location to location, as well as in terms of absolute cost…ie. stored hydropower vs. battery storage…
  
  And as I understand it running methane through fuel cells results in a lot less in the way of CO2 emissions than combusting it…
  
  This infographic does come from a fuel cell provider, and needs to be investigated more fully…
  
  But to my mind, it’s not a question of finding or espousing on particular form of clean energy production to the exclusion of all others…
  
  Seems to met that fuel cells have specific attributes that make them particularly well suited in certain applications, just as biofuels and bioga, in specific circumstances and produced in certain ways, helps us reduce our CO2 and GHG emissions.
  - Tiji
    
    Well when you extract the energy from methane you will get water and co2. It is how efficient are you with that energy. If you combusted it in say a car you are looking at @25% then if that car motor is being used to make electricity you lose some %s here and there. Gas turbine ups it to hi30%s low40% with co-generation you can go hi40%s. co-generation typically is where you make heat and electricity. The fuel cell they are talking about here says the get @50% using co-gen which is about on par with gas turbine co-gen but without the spin-up and size of the turbine. They say they get their work done in 740sqft spot. So the size of a small apartment or about 2 of my living rooms. 25×25 being 625sqft and 25×30 being 750sqft.
    
    -T