FuelCell Energy closes financing for biofuels fuel cell project

“We are excited to team up again with Crestmark and add this important financing solution that enables us to recycle capital for additional clean energy and decarbonisation projects and initiatives,” said Michael Bishop, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of FuelCell Energy. “This is our second sale-leaseback financing transaction executed with Crestmark and we are pleased to expand our relationship with their organisation. Crestmark has a deep understanding of the quality solutions delivered by our products, including carbon neutral projects directly leveraging on-site biofuels.”

“Crestmark is pleased to support FuelCell Energy and their management team in the deployment of such an important critical-use application,” commented Jon Ellis, Vice President of Alternative Energy Finance at Crestmark. “Crestmark is focused on the alternative energy market and has designed targeted funding solutions for the industry. This project, and the scalable and renewable power solution FuelCell Energy delivered, are a solid fit with our efforts in this industry.”

Key project highlights include:

• The SureSource 1500 platform is co-located with the SBMWD water reclamation plant and operates on the city’s anaerobic digester gas, which is treated by FuelCell Energy’s proprietary SureSource TreatmentTM system, cleanly producing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, carbon neutral renewable electricity. The San Bernardino Fuel Cell Project has contracted to sell the clean electricity from the facility to SBMWD under a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement.
• The SureSource TreatmentTM system developed with FuelCell Energy’s extensive experience with on-site biogas treatment enables the on-site cleaning of biofuel and use of it without injection into the common carrier gas pipeline. Gas treatment requirements are reduced compared to pipeline injection because of the ability of SureSource fuel cell systems to utilise low-Btu biogas reducing cost and creating more value for the generator of the biofuels. Additionally, costly pipelines to interconnect to common carrier gas pipelines is eliminated.
• Beyond the obvious benefit of producing carbon neutral electricity, the SureSource 1500™ platform uses biogas produced on-site as a waste product of water treatment that would otherwise be vented or flared. This approach prevents energy waste and the production of harmful local greenhouse gas emissions thus improving air quality. The platform converts the biogas to hydrogen to produce clean, renewable, power, as well as thermal energy to support more efficient operation and conversion of wastewater gas to biofuels at the SBMWD.
• Servicing a population of approximately 200 000 residents, the SBMWD delivers more than 15.5 billion gal./yr of water and provides wastewater collection and treatment at the water reclamation plant. The use of waste gas to produce clean, carbon neutral renewable power and heat on-site enhances the sustainability of the facility by avoiding scope 1 and 2 emissions and reducing grid power consumption.

For more news and technical articles from the global renewable industry, read the latest issue of Energy Global magazine.

Energy Global's Summer 2021 issue

The Summer issue of Energy Global features a varied spectrum of in-depth technical articles detailing recent projects, future projections, and technological advancements in the renewables sector, from companies including CEWEP, Enel Green Power, Turboden S.p.A., Cornwall Insight, and more.

Don’t forget to sign up to receive future digital issues of Energy Global for free here.

Read the article online at: https://www.energyglobal.com/bioenergy/02092021/fuelcell-energy-closes-financing-for-biofuels-fuel-cell-project/