In 2003, amid much fanfare, Yale installed a new 250 kW fuel cell behind the Peabody Museum. The fuel cell was built by the Fuel Cell Energy Company, based in Danbury, Connecticut, and was awarded to Yale by the State of Connecticut’s Clean Energy Fund through a grant application process. This initiative by the State was part of an effort to promote the Connecticut’s clean energy industries. Yale agreed to install and operate the fuel cell for ten years as well as publicize and demonstrate the technology. The effort received a lot of attention and drew interested visitors from as far away as China and South Korea.

The good news is that, four years later, the fuel cell is still quietly producing near zero emission electricity behind the Peabody Museum, but it’s been a learning process for everyone involved. Tom Downing, Senior Energy Engineer for Yale Facilities, has overseen the fuel cell project since its installation. Mr. Downing says that he fully expected “some initial bumps in the road, since we were testing a new technology.” During the first two years of operation the fuel cell broke down several times when critical seals within the unit failed. Fuel Cell Energy eventually developed seals which hold up under the intense heat of the cell’s operation. Over the last two years the unit has worked almost flawlessly and uptime over the last 20 months is over 99%. Since then, Mr. Downing gives the unit an A+. He says that the university has no regrets and is, overall, pleased with the performance.

While designed to run on pure hydrogen, Yale’s fuel cell is actually powered by natural gas, 80% of which is usable hydrogen. The fuel cell takes in natural gas and water and produces water, electricity, and hot air. The power produced by the fuel cell provides about 40-50% of the electricity for the Class of 1954 Environmental Science Center, which houses several scientific labs and many of the Peabody Museum’s collections. Initially, the hot air produced as a byproduct of the chemical reaction inside the fuel cell was going to waste, so Yale Facilities designed a heat exchanger, which uses the hot air to heat the building, raising the system’s efficiency from 47 to 65%. This innovation won Yale Facilities a Certificate of Recognition for Combined Heat and Power from the Environmental Protection Agency.

The prospect of more fuel cells on campus in the short term is unlikely. Mr. Downing thinks that if Yale were to get another fuel cell they would want one which runs on pure hydrogen, which is something that may be explored in the future. The high cost of fuel cells is also a barrier and Mr. Downing thinks that the university can meet its initial greenhouse gas reduction targets through other renewable energy technologies like geothermal, solar, and wind. Still, he sees a bright future for fuel cell technology, which is still in its infancy. He likens the development of fuel cells to that of computers. Right now, he says, fuel cells are at the same stage of development as computers were in the 1970s, when supercomputers took up whole rooms. Now you can buy a $1,000 laptop with more computing power and he thinks the same will eventually happen for fuel cells. It will be a long process but Yale’s helping make the fuel cell future possible.