The 2 MW Santa Clara Project

The City of Santa Clara, C4, USA, has hosted the world's first field demonstration of a molten carbonate fuel cell power plant. This US$46 million, 2 MW generator was a joint effort of five US utilities, the federal government, and two US research organizations. The demonstration used sixteen 125 kW stacks placed in four modules. The balance of plant (BOP) is the equipment that prepares and supplies the fuel to the stacks and converts the d.c. current to a.c. BOP construction started in April 1994, and was completed in June 1995. The BOP configuration allowed testing and development before installation of the four modules. The final full-temperature test was completed in February 1996. The four fuel cell modules were installed and cured, and power delivery began in April 1996. The plant operated for approximately 720 h at design output before electrical anomalies occurred and the plant was shut down for repairs. The plant restarted in August, but it soon became obvious that other problems had been caused by the electrical anomalies. The plant shut down and was reconfigured to a 1 MW plant. The restarted plant was ramped to 1 MW, but additional problems began to occur and the plant demonstration ended. The plant produced 2500 MWh, and operated at 1000 degrees F, or higher, for over 5290 h. The plant set operational records, and demonstrated multistack, automatic control, and stable-field operation. Power quality met all standards with no measurable NO, or SO, output. The plant isolated itself from the grid during two major California, USA grid outages. The plant also experienced a shutdown of the automatic control system, and placed itself on hat standby using the mechanical field systems. The plant then restarted without incident. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.