Green power surge

GM, Dow reach major fuel cell deal US automotive giant General Motors has made the largest corporate fuel cell sale in the world to date, supplying 500 hydrogen units with a combined capacity of 35 MW to Dow Chemical. Although GM has already invested $1 billion in fuel cell technology for vehicles, it doesn’t expect it to be commercially viable until 2010. The recent deal with Dow, however, confirms the view that stationary power generation should get there faster. Dow will use the units at its manufacturing plant in Freeport, Texas - where the hydrogen to fuel them is a co-product of its operations. That’s also where it is working on its own proton-exchange membrane fuel cells - which are themselves intended to be used eventually in vehicles - and it believes that having the GM units in operation on site will help reduce manufacturing costs. The deal was announced in October as one of several contracts totalling 97 MW of power negotiated by the Green Power Group of US corporations. “We joined this partnership to help us diversify our energy purchasing,” said William S. Stavropoulos, Dow’s president and CEO. “By working together, these businesses can have a tremendous impact on supporting and developing renewable energy markets.” The Green Power Group, whose members include Dow, DuPont, GM, Alcoa, IBM, Pitney Bowes and Johnson & Johnson, is working with the Washington DC-based World Resources Institute to identify and use a range of green energy approaches, including renewable energy certificates, wind power, biomass and geothermal resources and conversion of landfill gases. - Polly Ghazi

28 January 2004

Polly Ghazi