Freedom Tower to tap green fuel cell power

New York's Freedom Tower, the skyscraper being constructed on the site of the World Trade Center, is to use fuel cells to power its heating and cooling systems, it was revealed yesterday.

UTC Power, the fuel cell division of engineering conglomerate United Technologies, announced that it has received orders from the New York Power Authority (NYPA) for 12 fuel cells totalling 4.8Mw of power to serve the Freedom Tower and three other new towers under construction at the site in Manhattan.

The company said that the new PureCell Model 400 fuel cells would be delivered from early next year and would represent one of the largest fuel cell installations in the world.

UTC Power president Jan van Dokkum said that the deal underlined the growing commercial viability of fuel cell technologies. "We expect this next-generation fuel cell to be embraced by commercial customers which want to improve their energy productivity while simultaneously enhancing their electrical infrastructure reliability and reducing their environmental impact," he said.

Each of the fuel cells will use a chemical reaction to generate electricity as well as heat that will be reused to power the tower's heating and cooling systems.

Speaking to BusinessGreen.com earlier this year, Van Dokkum said that the combined heat and power fuel cell costs the same as previous versions - around $1m to buy and install - but delivers 400Kw as opposed to 200Kw of energy and lasts twice as long.

The company has calculated that the improvements allow it to generate electricity that costs 12 cents per kw/h, making it competitive with power from the grid costing between eight and 19 cents per kw/h in the US.

He added the company was "extremely pleased" to be involved in a landmark project that represented a "global example of green building design".

"We are committed to helping make clean energy initiatives at the new World Trade Center site a reality," said Roger B. Kelley, NYPA president and chief executive officer. "Fuel cells are one of the environmentally beneficial technologies that the authority is investing in… to combat greenhouse gas emissions and diversify the state's energy mix."

The new tower is reported to incorporate a wide range of clean technologies, including solar panels, energy efficient appliances and wind turbines, and is due to meet the requirements of the US Green Building Council’s LEED Gold certification. All of the facilities involved are also expected to be built to a design standard 20 per cent more energy efficient than the New York Energy Conservation Construction Code.